"Hardball's" Chris Matthews Will Not Run for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania

It looks like Chris Matthews will remain at MSNBC doing his "Hardball" program rather than run for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania:

Chris Matthews, the host of the MSNBC program “Hardball,” told his staff on Wednesday night that he would not run for the Senate in 2010 from Pennsylvania.

For much of the last year, Mr. Matthews had been considering entering the Senate race as a Democrat in his home state at the same time he was renegotiating his contract with NBC News. He had attended several meetings that had included Pennsylvania representatives as well as some major fund-raisers in the Democratic Party.

But Mr. Matthews, who was once a top aide to the House speaker, Tip O’Neill of Massachusetts, and ran for Congress as a Democrat in 1974, never formally declared himself a candidate, a decision which would have forced him out of his position at MSNBC.

In an interview in October, Mr. Matthews said, “People have asked me about it. I’ve never told anyone that I’m running.”

There has been speculation that Mr. Matthews, 63, was flirting with a Senate run as a way to give him some leverage in his contract talks. According to at least one earlier report, NBC was planning to ask Mr. Matthews to return but wanted him to take a drastic pay cut — from $5 million a year to an amount closer to $1 million.

Since that report, “Hardball” has bounced back in the ratings, especially during the presidential election season, and NBC News executives have expressed much more interest in retaining Mr. Matthews

Mr. Matthews declined to comment last night, as did executives from NBC News. But one executive said that discussions with Mr. Matthews for a new contract to remain on “Hardball” were continuing.

Matthews is a totally partisan Democrat. Once in a great while, he rises above partisanship in something he says, but that is a rare occasion indeed. Matthews knows he would have had a hard time beating long-time incumbent Arlen Specter.