A new poll of North Carolina from the Civitas Institute (R) confirms that GOP Sen. Richard Burr is in serious danger for 2010. When matched up against possible Democratic candidate Roy Cooper, the state Attorney General, Burr is trailing by a 41%-38% margin, within the ±4% margin of error.

Last week, a survey from Public Policy Polling (D) put Burr narrowly ahead of a generic Democrat, though PPP didn't test Cooper specifically.

The pollster's analysis from Civitas shows that both of these candidates remain largely unknown to the general public -- even though Burr is the incumbent U.S. Senator. Burr's favorables are actually a little better than Cooper's, but he's trailing in a direct match-up. The analysis concludes that Burr in and of himself polls well, compared to Cooper, but putting it on a partisan ballot is a different scenario.

On the one hand, this shouldn't be too surprising after last fall, when Kay Hagan won a landslide Senate victory and Barack Obama narrowly carried the state. On the other hand, things sure have changed when the inherent advantage is in being a Democrat in a race for federal office in North Carolina.

Late Update: It's worth noting that PPP did test Cooper against Burr back in December, and also showed him narrowly ahead with a high undecided number.