Should Pennsylvania politicians be banned from running for two offices in the same election?

The political ambitions of Pennsylvania state legislators sometimes prompt “two-fer” elections — when they run for reelection in their current position while simultaneously seeking election to a higher office.

State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, a Philadelphia Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate last year while also winning a third term in the House, is now running for state auditor general in the 2024 primary while intending to stand for a fourth term in the House.

State Rep. Mark Rozzi, a six-term Berks County Democrat who served as House speaker for eight weeks earlier this year, is likely to also run for auditor general. And he is now pushing to ban legislators — such as Kenyatta — from seeking two offices at the same time.

Did Clout mention that these guys can’t stand each other?

Both say their intentions reflect the will of the people.

Kenyatta, who has early and broad support from Democratic officials, said his travels around the state show him that voters want options.

“I have a lot of trust that voters can make decisions about who they want to represent them better than insiders in Harrisburg,” he said.

Rozzi, who locked the House doors while speaker and went out on a “listening tour,” said what he heard from voters out there convinced him to resign from the House if he runs for auditor general. The more he spoke, the more Clout got the sense he’s going to run.

And he’s got a timely pitch — legislators who win two elected posts have to resign from the House, prompting special elections. A series of resignations like that caused chaos earlier this year about who controls the narrowly divided chamber.

A resignation this week left the House in a 101-101 split between Democrats and Republicans.

“It’s got to stop,” Rozzi said. “If you want to run for a position in this Commonwealth, you should be committed to that position.”

The bad blood between Rozzi and and Kenyatta dates back to a confrontation in the Capitol after Rozzi won the speakership with support from some Republicans and a short-lived promise to remain politically independent in the post.

Kenyatta was angry that State Rep. Joanna McClinton, a five-term Philadelphia Democrat who was her party’s House leader at the time, had not won the job.

McClinton became speaker in late February, assisted by party victories in special elections for seats vacated by Democrats who went on to higher offices.

Kenyatta didn’t want to discuss the January dust-up.

Rozzi said that “Malcolm got very ugly and confrontational with me.”

State Rep. Russ Diamond, a five-term Republican from Lebanon County, also proposed a ban last week on candidates seeking two offices in the same election. Diamond ran for reelection and for lieutenant governor in last year’s primary.

That kind of legislation needs to clear the House State Government Committee, chaired by State Rep. Scott Conklin, a nine-term Centre County Democrat who ran for two offices in elections in 2010 and 2020.

With another indictment looming for President Donald Trump, we learned that Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt met in March with prosecutors working for Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

A source familiar with the matter confirmed what CNN reported about the meeting — that Schmidt, a Philadelphia Republican, discussed how misinformation about voter fraud impacted the 2020 election in Philadelphia, where he was a city commissioner at the time.

Trump announced this week that he received a letter informing him that he’s a target of the investigation, an indication that he could soon face charges.

Clout hears Schmidt’s discussion with prosecutors tracked with his 2021 U.S. Senate testimony and his 2022 appearance for the congressional committee investigating Jan. 6. In both, Schmidt described threats he faced, including from people who said they would murder his young children.

They were driven by a tweet Trump posted a week after the 2020 election, that named Schmidt and falsely accused him of ignoring “the mountain of corruption & dishonesty” in the election.

“The threats prior to that tweet … were pretty general in nature,” Schmidt told the committee last year. After Trump’s tweet, Schmidt said, “the threats became much more specific, much more graphic.”

Clout this week was perusing a list of political donors who have already given the maximum allowed under federal law to presidential candidates for next year’s primaries. One couple from Livingston, N.J. — Murray and Lee Kushner — stood out.

They are the uncle and aunt of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and former senior adviser. The couple maxed out — $3,300 each — to former N.J. Gov. Chris Christie, as they also did in 2015 when Christie first ran for president.

Christie, when he was a U.S. attorney, successfully prosecuted Jared’s dad, Charles Kushner, for a scandalous scheme that grew from a fight about spending in the family’s real estate business.

Charles Kushner pleaded guilty in 2004 to tax fraud charges and to retaliating against a witness in the case — his sister. He admitted to hiring a sex worker to seduce his brother-in-law and sending a video tape of the encounter to his sister.

Trump picked Christie to lead his 2016 White House transition team, until Jared put a stop to all that.

Christie called that a retaliatory “hit job” in his 2019 book, Let Me Finish: Trump, the Kushners, Bannon, New Jersey, and the Power of In-Your-Face Politics.

Still, Christie stuck with Trump until March of this year, two months before the former governor declared his candidacy for president.

Clout provides often irreverent news and analysis about people, power, and politics.