Author

Jim Small is a native Arizonan and has covered state government, policy and politics since 2004, with a focus on investigative and in-depth policy reporting, first as a reporter for the Arizona Capitol Times, then as editor of the paper and its prestigious sister publications, the Yellow Sheet Report and Arizona Legislative Report. Under his guidance, the Capitol Times won numerous state, regional and national awards for its accountability journalism and probing investigations into state government operations.
Editor’s Thought Bubble: GOP leadership is powerless, and their members know it
By: Jim Small - May 27, 2021
Late yesterday evening, Republican leaders saw their plans to speed a state budget through the legislative process fall apart. The deal with Ducey was announced last week, the bills were introduced Monday, rushed through committee Tuesday and the whole package — including a flat income tax proposal that would slash state revenues by $1.9 billion […]
Budget deal will include huge tax cuts for the wealthy and a new flat income tax
By: Jim Small - May 18, 2021
A budget deal reportedly struck by Gov. Doug Ducey and legislative Republican leaders would transform Arizona’s income tax system and provide massive cuts to the wealthy -- and also undercut a measure voters approved in 2020 that taxed the rich to increase school funding by nearly $1 billion every year.
Editor’s Thought Bubble: A victory for media access is a victory for the public
By: Jim Small - April 28, 2021
As of yesterday afternoon, local reporters were allowed into Veterans Memorial Coliseum to do their jobs covering the audit being conducted by Senate Republicans and their team of thoroughly biased, conspiracy-theory-spreading, auditors who sought to overturn the 2020 election because they disagreed with the outcome.
Editor’s Thought Bubble: The Senate’s election audit clown show
By: Jim Small - April 9, 2021
Senate Republicans have so far defended Chief Auditor Doug Logan (of the oh-so-professionally named firm Cyber Ninjas) as perfectly qualified to lead the audit of all 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County in November and all of the county’s Dominion Voting System tabulation machines, even though he spent the months after the election howling at […]
Arizona at low risk of gerrymandering in 2022: report
By: Jim Small - April 6, 2021
In a new analysis of possible gerrymandering ahead of the 2022 elections, Arizona is just one of seven states that were deemed at “minimal risk” of winding up with a political map with clear partisan bias.
Editor’s Thought Bubble: The #StopTheSteal audit was always going to be this way
By: Jim Small - April 1, 2021
It took me less than an hour to find the multitude of tweets that the lead auditor, a Florida man named Doug Logan, had sent from a Twitter account that he deleted sometime in January.
Arizona Senate hires a ‘Stop the Steal’ advocate to lead 2020 election audit
By: Jeremy Duda and Jim Small - March 31, 2021
The audit team that Senate President Karen Fann selected to examine the 2020 general election in Maricopa County will be led by a company owned by an advocate of the “Stop the Steal” movement who repeatedly alleged on social media that the election was rigged against former President Donald Trump.
Editor’s Thought Bubble: Ducey doesn’t care if we get sick
By: Jim Small - March 29, 2021
Make no mistake: The Ducey administration does not care how many of us get sick. Their entire mitigation strategy isn't built around protecting your well-being, but around making sure enough of us don't get sick that we fill up hospital beds.
Karen Fann owns this farcical crusade to prove Trump isn’t a big loser
By: Jim Small - March 22, 2021
Senate President Karen Fann is too weak or too gullible or too ambitious to have done the right thing and stood up for our elections.
Gosar allies with racists, making it hard to take his ‘white racism’ denunciation seriously
By: Jim Small - March 12, 2021
Congressman Paul Gosar is no stranger to palling around with bigots and racists, making it hard to place much stock in his denunciations of “white racism” after he gave the headline speech at a white nationalist conference and sat through a blatantly racist speech given by the organizer.
A counter-majoritarian party and its radically anti-democratic plan to keep power
By: Jim Small - March 11, 2021
It’s little wonder that the Republican Party is embracing counter-majoritarian policies: They know full well that they will lose their grip on power at the ballot box if they are forced to run on their actual ideas and records, so they’re going to rig the system so they can control the nation’s direction as a […]
Pandemic aid bill means more than $16 billion to Arizona governments, schools, workers
By: Jim Small - March 10, 2021
More than $16.1 billion is headed to Arizona in the pandemic aid package that was passed by Congress Wednesday, including billions of dollars for local governments, schools, health care and businesses.