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RALEIGH — Before the Democrats seeking their party’s nomination for U.S. senator try to distinguish themselves from Republican incumbent Richard Burr, they might want to worry about setting themselves apart from one another.

In surveys testing various Democratic contenders — former state Sen. Cal Cunningham of Lexington, Durham lawyer Kenneth Lewis and Secretary of State Elaine Marshall — against Burr, they all fared about the same.

“What people are really answering is a party question....I could have asked about the proverbial yellow dog and would have gotten about the same result,” said Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling, a firm that works mainly for Democratic candidates.

While it’s too early to draw conclusions about a general election outcome — most handicappers say Burr has a number of advantages on his road to re-election — a November survey by Debnam’s company shows the three most likely nominees taking about 33 percent of the vote against a fairly steady 45 percent for the incumbent.

While those numbers suggest that any of the three have work to do to win over rank-and-file voters, there’s at least one small subset of decision-making party officials who have made their preference known.

Even though Lewis and Marshall have been in the race for months and similar surveys show few innate preferences among primary voters, party leaders in Washington with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee continued not-so-subtly shopping for another candidate through Thanksgiving.

They settled on Cunningham last week after higher-profile Democrats said no and after he had announced that this wasn’t the year for him to run.

In an interview last week, Cunningham acknowledged that a “path to victory” opened after Rep. Bob Etheridge — the last of the Democrats’ more established potential candidates — declined to run.

The fundraising game

To be sure, other Democrats will file to run in the primary when the filing period opens in February. But party insiders say there’s not enough time or money available from donors for an unknown to mount a reasonable challenge.

“It’s awfully late, and there’s not a lot of oxygen left in the room for anyone else,” said Gary Pearce, a longtime Democratic consultant who is not working for the candidates.

Based on polling, if this were merely an intramural battle among North Carolina players, the field might look fairly even.

“Whoever raises the most money and makes the fewest mistakes will be the (nominee),” Debnam said.

Because he was tapped by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Cunningham might have an advantage at raising money from interests out of state, Debnam said. Federal Election Commission reports show Lewis and Marshall each with less than $200,000 in the bank as of Oct. 1.

If any of the three candidates file their next campaign report with a “big number” — something approaching over $1 million that far outpaces his or her competitors — that could go a long way toward establishing that person as the front-runner. Otherwise, the three could find themselves in what Pearce described as a “trench war” until the May primary.

Last year’s race between Hagan and former Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole cost more than $45 million when spending by the candidates and their parties was added up. Most of that went toward television commercials, which will be key in building name recognition and chipping away at Burr.

“That’s going to be the big question for all three: How much money can they raise?” Pearce said.

On health care reform

On domestic policy, the three Democrats share many of the same views.

Each says they support the ongoing effort toward reforming the nation’s health care system. And each said they would have rejected the Stupak amendment, which would have limited access to abortion.

“The short answer is we need reform; I would have voted to get into this debate,” Cunningham said, adding that future Congresses likely will have to continue working on the issue.

All three outlined what have become common talking points on the topic: Any bill needs to lower cost while insuring more people and remedying abuses in the system such as denying health coverage to those with pre-existing conditions.

None seemed happy with the idea that Congressional Democrats could give up on the public option — a federally run health insurance plan that would be available to those who don’t have coverage. Creating such a publicly run player has been touted as a way to encourage insurance companies to keep costs low and to prod them to cover those who they may have rejected.

“I am very doubtful we can achieve those objectives without there being a public option in the mix,” Lewis said.

Marshall said oversight and eliminating loopholes would be critical in any new health care plan.

“The public option would be the best way to do that now,” she said. “We’ve got to have a way to do that.”

For his part, Cunningham said, “the public option can be an important component to cutting costs and providing consumers with real options.”

On war in Afghanistan

During interviews last week, the sharpest contrast among the three came in their reaction to President Barack Obama’s plan to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.

Cunningham, who was a prosecutor in Iraq and earned a Bronze Star, said the president was on the “right path.” He said the extra troops would be critical in suppressing the Taliban, a group with an extreme view of Islam that allowed the al-Qaida terrorist group to use the country as a base of operations before the Sept. 11 attacks.

“I have seen the importance of boots on the ground to retaking momentum, to breaking the back of an insurgency,” Cunningham said.

Lewis said he was “still evaluating” the president’s decision. “I like the fact that his position recognizes that the length of our commitment should be limited in scope,” he said.

Bur Marshall said, “What he announced is something I really don’t support. We have invested billions of dollars in that part of the world....If there is nation-building that is to take place, it needs to happen right here in America.”

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com