A new Minnesota Public Radio poll of 625 registered voters finds Norm Coleman maintaining 20+ point leads over both Al Franken and Mike Ciresi—the leading contenders for the DFL U.S. Senate nomination.

The new poll numbers are virtually identical to a poll taken of 632 registered voters by Survey USA three months prior. Coleman has a 22-point lead over Franken (54—32), the same lead he held back in February 2007 (57—35).

Coleman fairs just as well against Ciresi, sporting a 23 point in the MPR poll (52—29), the same margin in SurveyUSA's February poll (57—34).

One interesting finding from the poll is that the state is much more enamored with the performance of its junior Senator, DFL-er Amy Klobuchar, than they are with Coleman. More than twice as many Minnesotans (20 percent) believe Klobuchar is doing an 'excellent' job as senator, compared to Coleman (9 percent). And twice as many Minnestans believe Coleman is doing a 'poor' job (18 percent) as compared to Klobuchar (9 percent). Overall, 56 percent of Minnesotans give Klobuchar positive marks, compared to 48 percent for the senior senator.

There was another important signal from the poll regarding the views of Gopher State residents. In the new MPR poll, Minnesotans give the (Democratic-led) U.S. Congress a 29 percent approval rating. That's low, to be sure, but a noticeably higher mark than what the state gave the Republican-led Congress last September (17 percent, Pioneer Press / MPR poll).