Three agency directors appointed by Gov. Doug Ducey were forced out by the governor in 2016 amid concerns they acted out of line right under the governor’s nose.

Capitol Twitter outdid itself this year, from snarky comments from former elected officials to witty insight into national and local politics. Here are our favorite tweets from 2016, in alphabetical order.

In Arizona, no one’s stock at the Capitol is higher at the end of 2015 than Gov. Doug Ducey’s. Several others were also ascendant in 2015. Here’s our list of the hot and not-so-hot personalities and issues that populated the Arizona Capitol Times’ pages during the past 12 months.

Capitol protesters voiced their views on subjects from education to midwives. Sen. Carlyle Begay drew a crowd of supporters when he changed parties from Democrat to Republican. Secretary of State Michele Reagan reached out to a younger generation of potential voters. Those and other scenes were captured in the top photos of 2015.

Courts, like politics, have their winners and losers. And politics was at the center of many legal controversies in 2015.

The Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission became a quasi-regular fixture at the U.S. Supreme Court this year as remapping panel defended the work it did and even its right to do it.

The Arizona Senate’s unilateral decision to adjourn left numerous bills for dead, including a measure designed to outlaw “revenge porn” and settle an ongoing lawsuit against the state.

Surprising no one, Sen. Carlyle Begay left the Democratic Party in 2015.

Republican Rep. Bob Thorpe of Flagstaff became the new poster child for the Republican insurrection against President Obama, at least according to a pair of editorials in national newspapers.

As lawmakers developed the fiscal year 2016 spending plan, an unofficial rallying point among the education and human services communities was that the prison system is growing at the expense of schools and children.