Voters are evenly divided over the man Barack Obama wants to be the next attorney general of the United States, but 54% don’t know enough about him to have an opinion, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Twenty-three percent (23%) of voters have a favorable opinion of Eric H. Holder, Jr., and the identical number (23%) view him unfavorably.

If approved by the Senate, which is expected to be a formality given that body’s expanded Democratic majority, Holder, 57, will become the first African-American to hold the country’s top law enforcement position on a fulltime basis. Obama is expected to announce his nomination of Holder today.

As he prepares to make this announcement, Obama has a +24 rating in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Approval Index today, his highest rating yet.

Men are slightly more familiar with Holder than women, but both male and female voters are closely divided on their opinion of him. Forty-seven percent (47%) of men and 60% of women don’t have an opinion of the nominee for attorney general.

Republicans are marginally more familiar with Holder than Democrats but not surprisingly are far more critical. Fifty-five percent (55%) of Democratic voters have no opinion of Obama’s AG candidate, compared to 49% of Republicans. Among those who are aware of Holder, 36% of Democrats view him favorably, while 39% of Republicans have an unfavorable opinion of the nominee. Unaffiliated voters are evenly divided, but 60% draw a blank when asked for an opinion of Holder.

Only 43% of African-American voters have no opinion of Holder versus 57% of whites. Thirty-two percent (32%) of black voters regard him favorably, 24% unfavorably. Twenty percent (20%) of white voters have a favorable opinion of Holder, while 23% see him unfavorably,

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Holder, who was deputy attorney general in the Clinton Administration, actually served as acting attorney general for the first few weeks of the Bush presidency until the new president’s nominee was approved by the Senate. He had previously served in Washington, D.C., as a local court judge and in the U.S. attorney’s office.

The high level of voters who don’t know enough about Holder to have an opinion is not uncommon in the early days of an administration when tomorrow’s newsmakers are largely unknown. Even though Timothy Geithner as secretary of the Treasury will be the Obama Administration’s point man on the beleaguered economy, 53% of voters don’t have an opinion about him one way or the other.
The same is true even of the Bush Cabinet member that Obama is planning to hold over for the early months of his presidency. Over one-third of voters (35%) don’t know enough about Robert Gates, who has been defense secretary for the past two years, to have an opinion of him.

Forty-three percent (43%) similarly have no opinion of Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, who Obama is expected to name today as the new secretary of Homeland Security. Napolitano, 51, governor since 2003, has served as Arizona’s attorney general and as a U.S. attorney in the state. She also was one of Anita Hill’s lawyers during the contentious hearings over Clarence Thomas’ nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Thirty percent (30%) of voters have a favorable opinion of Napolitano, while 25% view her unfavorably. Men have a more unfavorable view of her than women.

Again, Republicans are more familiar with Napolitano than her fellow Democrats – by nine points. A plurality of Republicans (44%) have an unfavorable opinion of her, while 41% of Democrats like the Arizona governor.

In her new post, Napolitano will be in charge of immigration enforcement. As governor, she has opposed a border fence and efforts to restrict government benefits to illegal immigrants. While she favors a legalization of existing illegal immigrants that many view as amnesty, she also has pushed for stronger workplace enforcement.

While it was the issue both presidential candidates largely ignored, one-out-of-four U.S. voters (26%) is still angry about the current immigration situation.
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