David Bolles lives about 50 minutes from the Utah campus where Charlie Kirk was shot last fall. His girlfriend was there the day it happened.
Even so, the oldest son of slain investigative reporter Don Bolles says the comparison now being drawn between the two men — in legislation to memorialize both at the Arizona Capitol — feels deeply misplaced.
“I don't think any violence should be occurring to anybody,” David told us. “But it's sad for me to hear that (the bill to create a monument honoring Bolles is) being linked to Charlie Kirk, because my father was sort of the opposite type of person as Charlie Kirk was.”
Three years ago, the Arizona Agenda started a project to get state lawmakers to approve a monument honoring Bolles on the Capitol plaza, which requires legislative approval even though it would be funded through private donations.
Since then, the project has taken on a life of its own.
Lawmakers have introduced six versions of the Bolles monument bill, but each died after Republican Sen. Jake Hoffman refused to grant it a hearing in his committee.
The front page of the Arizona Republic on June 3, 1976. Bolles died from his injuries 10 days later.
This year — which marks the 50th anniversary of Bolles’ death in a car bombing tied to his reporting on organized crime and political corruption — Hoffman is sponsoring the monument legislation himself.
But his version comes with a rewrite: SB1686 would rename the Wesley Bolin Plaza to the “Wesley Bolin and Charlie Kirk Freedom Plaza” and authorize monuments for both Kirk and Bolles.
On Wednesday, lawmakers advanced the bill through the Senate Government Committee in a party-line vote. While Democrats have uniformly supported past versions of the Bolles monument bill, all the committee’s Democrats voted against Hoffman's version.
Hoffman justified pairing Kirk with Bolles by describing both men as “pillars of civil rights” who were killed because of their advocacy.
“Transparency and truth and honesty really seem to bother folks,” he said during the hearing. "And that's unfortunately the case that we saw with both Mr. Bolles and Mr. Kirk, is that when they engaged in that activity, it resulted in the loss of their lives."
Bolles’s son has a different take.
David was 21 when his father was killed — old enough, he said, to understand the kind of journalist his father was.
“(Don Bolles) was from the (Walter) Cronkite days, where the news is the news, you don't go proselytizing for other causes,” he said. “That was his take on things — not to create heroes out of people that probably more than half the United States doesn't feel should be treated as a hero.”
Last year’s standalone Bolles monument bill drew just one opponent in the Request to Speak system. Hoffman’s Kirk-paired version has more than 260 people signed up in opposition.
Some of the comments on the Request to Speak report for SB1686.
And by itself, a Bolles monument hasn’t been politically divisive.
Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have introduced the Bolles bill six times since the 2023 legislative session. Three of those bills made it through the House with bipartisan support, including from some of the chamber’s most conservative Republicans, only to die after Hoffman refused them a committee hearing. (The other three bills started in the Senate, and died without ever receiving a hearing in Hoffman's committee.)
Last year, Republican Rep. Selina Bliss took up the Bolles bill. After her initial version passed the House and died in Hoffman's committee, she teamed up with other lawmakers to get around Hoffman by attaching the proposal to unrelated legislation through a strike-everything amendment. But Senate President Warren Petersen never allowed the amended bill to receive a full Senate vote.
“I’m glad to see Senator Hoffman is finally recognizing the work of Don Bolles has stood the test of time,” Bliss told us.
While Hoffman lauded Bolles’ work on Wednesday, he has never explained his years-long refusal to hear the bill.
Instead, the senator only took up the cause when the violence hit closer to home.
After Kirk was assassinated while speaking at a Utah Valley University debate in September, much of the memorialization effort has centered in Arizona, where Kirk built Turning Point USA into a major political presence and based the group’s headquarters.
Turning Point hosted a high-profile memorial for Kirk in Glendale, and Republican lawmakers are advancing a measure to name the Loop 202 after him.
Hoffman, who once served as a spokesperson for Turning Point, said he and Kirk had been friends for ten years.
His relationship with the press isn't so great.
By hijacking the Bolles bill, Hoffman gets to use the past three years of momentum to pander to his own base. Plus, he gets to shame Democrats who oppose tying the two together.
Democrats on the Senate Government Committee didn’t explain why they voted against the bill this year — in fact, the bill didn’t receive any debate whatsoever.
But Senate Minority Leader Priya Sundareshan told us the obvious — they oppose it because of the Kirk factor.
“I think, generally, the caucuses' stance is that these kinds of public namings of things or public monuments should be reserved for people who have not been so partisan,” Sundareshan said.
In addition to overshadowing Bolles’ legacy, Hoffman’s bill positions Kirk alongside Wesley Bolin, the 15th governor of Arizona and longtime namesake of the Capitol plaza.
@arizona.agenda There is a monument to fake news at the Arizona Capitol. We want to put up a monument to a real newspaper hero. For daily Arizona politic... See more
The Wesley Bolin Plaza is known for hosting protests, and Hoffman argued that’s why it should be renamed “Wesley Bolin and Charlie Kirk Freedom Plaza.”
And he said that while Bolles and Kirk are “very different,” linking them together makes sense because they shared “a love for our constitutionally protected civil liberties.”
After 50 years, David said he feels “ambivalent” about a monument honoring his father.
But he’s far less conflicted about pairing Bolles with Kirk.
“I'm not a fan of (Kirk’s). I wouldn't like the two linked together,” he said. “And I know my siblings would feel the same way.”
Federal court flop: On Tuesday, a federal grand jury declined to indict Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly and other members of Congress for making a video that urged soldiers to refuse illegal orders, the Associated Press reports. While Kelly, a Navy veteran, is suing Secretary of War Pete Hegseth for trying to retroactively demote him over the video, Tuesday’s decision reveals that the Trump administration attempted but failed to take legal action against Kelly.
Seriously, Brad, chill: A Pinal County Superior Court judge on Monday ordered County Attorney Brad Miller to temporarily halt the 287(g) agreement he made with ICE on behalf of the county, KJZZ’s Camryn Sanchez reports. The agreement, which was signed last year, would make county law enforcement cooperate with ICE. The board of supervisors was not initially informed and, upon finding out, called the agreement unlawful and ordered Miller to end it. When he refused, the board sued.
We’ll make you listen: The Phoenix City Council met on Tuesday to discuss drafting an ordinance that would outline how to respond to ICE targeting the city, Sahara Sajjadi of the Copper Courier reports. However, the meeting only lasted about 20 minutes before a roomful of angry activists hijacked it, protesting the council’s refusal to take comments from the public. After a quick recess, the council voted 8-1 to work on an ordinance, and four of its members stayed behind to listen to the concerns of residents. Critics have said the city isn’t doing enough to counter the feds.
Well, Flock me: A bill that Republicans claim will improve transparency for AI traffic cameras — but will actually shield records from the public eye — is moving forward, Jerod MacDonald-Evoy reports for the Arizona Mirror. The technology has become a considerable source of surveillance controversy in the last year. Republicans, along with Democratic Sen. Lela Alston, advanced the bill out of the Senate Appropriations, Transportation and Technology Committee. It needs to be approved by the chamber’s Rules Committee next.
Unlike Flock cameras, we don’t want data on your whereabouts at all times — just some of your support so we can keep an eye on the surveillance state.
Suuuure, Wendy: The Arizona Senate followed the House and approved a bill that would require hospitals to ask patients whether they’re in the country legally, per Capitol scribe Howie Fischer. The bill sponsor, Republican Sen. Wendy Rogers, says the patients’ responses won’t be reported to federal immigration agencies. Democratic Sen. Analise Ortiz wasn’t buying it.
“Right now, we know that no personal information is safe from being given over to ICE, who is killing people in the streets, including United States citizens,” Ortiz said.
In other, other news
Paradise Valley Unified officials fired Superintendent Todd Cummings for not mentioning in his job application that his previous bosses found him to be “incompetent” and “difficult to work with” (Kevin Reagan / 12News) … Pinal County officials ran about 30 cloud seeding tests in the western part of the county last summer and increased rainfall by about 34,000 acre-feet (Heidi Hommel / KTAR) … And for a feel good story, a group of humanitarians in Tucson has been traveling to a Mexican border town to feed and care for the town’s stray dogs after they were abandoned at the height of cartel violence (Danyelle Khmara / AZPM).
Over 80% of Arizonans rely on Colorado River water delivered by the Central Arizona Project. That water supports our homes, businesses, environment, and future.
Protecting it isn’t just about water; it’s about people, communities, and opportunity. That’s why mayors and business leaders from Maricopa, Pima, and Pinal Counties have united through the Coalition for Protecting Arizona’s Lifeline, committing to safeguard the Colorado River and the critical infrastructure that delivers it.
Across the state, our communities are innovating, investing, and working together to protect this shared lifeline.
Learn more at protectingarizonaslifeline.com
Republican Sen. Jake Hoffman paused briefly before speaking into his mic during yesterday’s Senate Government Committee.
“I put some lube on and got him on his knees and I began to slide into him from behind. I pulled out of him and kissed him while he masturbated. He asked me to turn over while he slipped a condom on himself,” Hoffman said gravely. “He got on top and slowly inserted. It was the worst pain I think I have ever felt in my life.”
Alright, Hoffman was reading from “All Boys Aren't Blue,” one of the most banned and challenged books in the United States in the last five years.
But we still never expected to hear him say all that.
Much of yesterday’s hearing was focused on Senate Bills 1435 and 1567, which would ban public and school libraries from “exposing” minors to any sexually explicit material, and ban government employees from exposing minors to explicit material, respectively. Both passed Hoffman's committee on party lines.
The bills don't just ban pictures, but also smutty text — though Republican Sen. John Kavanagh didn’t grasp that.
Jeanne Woodbury, a lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union, reminded the committee that there is a sexually explicit scene in “1984.”
Kavanagh said he was assigned to read it in high school and didn’t recall any graphic depictions of sex.
“I was a teenager, so I sure as hell would have remembered and probably bookmarked it,” Kavanagh said, then asking why schools couldn’t just order books without pictures.
Woodbury had to explain to Kavanagh that there weren’t pictures of the horny details in the dystopian classic — it’s just plain old words.
Kavanagh claimed the bill wouldn’t apply to dirty words, but Hoffman corrected him that it would.
Kavanagh voted for the bill anyway.