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Chris Matthews For Senate? The Rumor Mill Is Up & Running

PhillyClout has heard a couple of interesting rumors about Chris Matthews from MSNBC's Hardball running for the U.S. Senate as a Democrat in 2010 against incumbent Republican Senator Arlen Specter. We ran those rumors by political consultant Neil Oxman this afternoon. First up: We hear Matthews is talking to Oxman about running the media for his campaign. We also hear Matthews is looking around for a teaching post out west in Pittsburgh.

PhillyClout has heard a couple of interesting rumors about Chris Matthews from MSNBC's Hardball running for the U.S. Senate as a Democrat in 2010 against incumbent Republican Senator Arlen Specter.  We ran those rumors by political consultant Neil Oxman this afternoon.  First up:  We hear Matthews is talking to Oxman about running the media for his campaign. We also hear Matthews is looking around for a teaching post out west in Pittsburgh.

Oxman, who did the media for Mayor Nutter's campaign last year and for Joe Hoeffel's unsuccessful run against Specter in 2004, said Matthews has not hired anybody to run for anything yet.  "If he runs, I hope to be involved," Oxman said. "I have not settled anything with him."

Oxman has been urging Matthews, a Philadelphia native who loves to talk about his hometown on television, to run for the Senate for years.  "I know he's thinking about it," Oxman said. "That's all I can say. He's weighing all his options."

So what about that Pittsburgh teaching gig?  The biography for Matthews posted on MSNBC.com notes that he was a visiting fellow at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, Institute of Politics and holds 16 honorary Ph.D.s.  "He's talked about teaching someplace in Pennsylvania," Oxman said. "That's one of the places he's talked about."