Matthews Rounds Up Staff for Senate Run

Chris Matthews is lining up a top-notch staff to manage his campaign for the Pennsylvania Senate seat held by Arlen Specter, FiveThirtyEight reports. Multiple sources say the MSNBC host has made deals with seasoned Obama aides to run the 2010 campaign. Polls already show that Matthews, running as a Democrat, would face an uphill battle if Specter runs for re-election.

Matthews, 62, trails the 80-year-old senator by 45% to 33%, but not because of negatives; 60% of voters said they lacked enough information to form a strong opinion about him, Talking Points Memo reports. So far, Matthews has denied the staffing report: "It is absolutely not true," he said in a statement. But he did not deny making any plans to run for the Senate seat.
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