The Jeff Oravits Show Podcast

Flagstaff City Council candidate Nancy Baca joins me to talk about her campaign, her Flagstaff roots and what she’s hearing from voters as Election Day approaches.
Baca has called Flagstaff home for more than four decades, attended Flagstaff High School and brings a background in business, higher education and economic research to her run for City Council.
We talk about some of the biggest issues facing Flagstaff: housing and affordability, the city’s rising minimum wage, water, economic development and the debate over data centers. What is making it harder to live and do business in Flagstaff — and what can City Council actually do about it?
Nancy also shares what has surprised her most about running for office, what she's hearing from voters and why she decided to jump into local politics.
Plus, we discuss the two Flagstaff propositions on the November ballot dealing with public safety: a proposed 0.5% sales tax and a separate $40 million bond measure for public safety facilities, vehicles and equipment.

Arizona State Senator Wendy Rogers joins me for a wide-ranging conversation that starts with politics and ends thousands of miles away in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
With Election Day approaching, Rogers explains why she believes Republicans will maintain control of the Arizona Legislature — and why she’s optimistic about Republican prospects in the U.S. House and Senate. We also dig into several of the statewide propositions Arizona voters will decide this November.
Then we shift gears.
Rogers, a retired U.S. Air Force pilot, shares stories from her recent travels through the Baltic states, including their experiences during World War II and decades under Soviet domination. We talk about what she saw and heard there, and what life is like today in countries sitting on the front line between Western Europe and Russia.
Finally, we discuss the extraordinary recent incident aboard a FlyDubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv, where authorities say the co-pilot attacked the captain in the cockpit and the aircraft plunged before passengers and crew helped regain control.
Arizona politics, history, Russia, Europe and aviation — a lot of ground covered in this extended conversation with Senator Wendy Rogers.

What exactly does Arizona’s State Mine Inspector do?
Republican nominee and current State Mine Inspector Les Presmyk joins me to talk about one of Arizona’s most overlooked statewide elected offices — and an industry that remains enormously important to the Copper State.
Presmyk shares his more than four decades of experience in Arizona mining and explains what the Mine Inspector actually does, from inspecting active mines and investigating accidents to miner safety training, abandoned mines and reclamation.
We also discuss Arizona’s mining industry today: Are we still living up to our reputation as the Copper State? How difficult is it to open a new mine? Why is the Mine Inspector an elected partisan office when mine safety itself isn’t partisan?
And we finish with one of Arizona’s more controversial mining issues — uranium mining near the Grand Canyon and the Pinyon Plain Mine.

Sine Kerr, Republican nominee for Arizona’s newly created office of lieutenant governor and Andy Biggs’ running mate, joins me to discuss what the job would actually look like and the role she hopes to play in a Biggs administration.
We talk about Arizona’s rapid growth and whether the state has gone too far in courting massive data centers, the increasing pressure on Arizona’s water supplies, housing affordability and whether the Legislature has a role in bringing down housing costs.
Kerr also discusses several of the Biggs-Kerr campaign’s policy proposals and how her background in agriculture, water policy and the Arizona Legislature would shape her approach to becoming Arizona’s first lieutenant governor.

Local builder and contractor Mark Haughwout joins me to sound the alarm over Flagstaff’s move toward the latest International Building, Energy and Fire Codes — and what he says they could mean for the cost of building a home.
Mark breaks down his estimates of how much the new requirements could add to construction costs and discusses snow-load standards, energy efficiency, sustainability mandates and the growing list of requirements builders face in Flagstaff.
The city argues the updated codes will improve safety, wildfire resilience and energy efficiency while potentially reducing long-term costs. But Mark raises the other side of the equation: How much more can we add to the upfront price of a home in a city already struggling with housing affordability?
We dig into the tradeoff between sustainability, safety and affordability — and whether Flagstaff is making it increasingly difficult to build housing ordinary people can afford.

Olivia Oravits joins me for a wide-ranging conversation about politics, money and what could be a very interesting winter in Arizona.
We start with political advertising: What actually gets people's attention anymore? With voters bombarded by digital ads, texts, emails and social media, could old-school campaign signs and physical mailers actually be making a comeback?
Then we tackle the federal government’s $40 trillion national debt, rising interest costs and the perennial political promise to solve our fiscal problems by simply “taxing the rich.”
Finally, after an unusually wet Arizona monsoon, we look ahead to a strengthening El Niño. Could Northern Arizona be headed for a big snow year? We discuss the predictions, what El Niño historically means for Arizona and why even a “super” El Niño doesn’t guarantee a blockbuster winter.

Republican candidate for Arizona Secretary of State Alex Kolodin joins me to talk about his campaign, Arizona’s election system and what he would change if voters put him in charge of the Secretary of State’s Office.
We get into election security, voter confidence, how long it takes Arizona to count ballots, voter ID and the rules governing our elections. Kolodin also discusses his experience as an election attorney and state legislator, Proposition 144, and his case for replacing incumbent Secretary of State Adrian Fontes.
With another major election approaching, we dig into a fundamental question: How should Arizona run its elections — and what would an Alex Kolodin administration do differently?

Jonathan Nez, former president of the Navajo Nation and Democratic candidate for Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District, joins me to make his case for replacing Congressman Eli Crane in Washington.
We discuss the issues facing Northern and rural Arizona, including the rising cost of living, water, healthcare, infrastructure and the role of the federal government in our communities. Nez also talks about his experience leading the Navajo Nation, working across party lines and why he believes CD2 voters should make a change in November.
It’s a wide-ranging conversation with one of the two major-party candidates asking voters to represent Arizona’s sprawling 2nd Congressional District in Congress.

Flagstaff City Councilwoman Lori Matthews joins me for a wide-ranging conversation about her campaign for another term and the major issues facing Flagstaff.
We talk about growth and development, housing and affordability, the cost of living, public safety, city spending and taxes, and the direction Flagstaff is heading. Matthews also discusses what she’s learned during her first term, where she believes City Hall needs to do better, and why she’s asking Flagstaff voters for another four years.
It’s a candid conversation about the choices facing Flagstaff and what the city could look like in the years ahead.

Flagstaff’s minimum wage is officially headed to $18.95 an hour, and I take a deep dive into how we got here—and where we go from here.
 
I break down the latest CPI numbers, the possibility of an interest-rate cut, Arizona’s new statewide minimum wage and Flagstaff’s much higher wage. What are the real-world impacts on small businesses, workers, prices and jobs? And what needs to happen to stop these automatic increases before they create an even bigger economic problem?
Plus, the debut of our new song, “The Minimum Wage Blues” by Click and Clack and the AI Machine.
 
Then we switch gears—or maybe airplanes! My son and aspiring aviator Owen joins me to talk about our next father-son flying adventure. We’re taking our little plane to Roswell, New Mexico for the 2026 National Championship Air Races, home of the world’s fastest motorsport. Seven racing classes, airplanes topping 500 mph, the USAF Thunderbirds—and Owen and I are flying ourselves there!
 
Economics, airplanes and a little Minimum Wage Blues.