Measure seeks monument for both Charlie Kirk, slain Arizona journalist

But the gambit may not work.

Not a single Democrat has so far agreed to support the proposal by Sen. Jake Hoffman, an ally of Kirk whose firm also had done some business for Kirk's Turning Point USA, to link the two issues.

Several foes have said that Kirk does not deserve such an honor.

Given that Republicans control both the Senate and House, that opposition is not fatal.

SB 1686, proposing to honor both, has already been approved by the Senate and the House Government Committee. That leaves just a roll-call vote in the House.

But the measure would still need the approval of Gov. Katie Hobbs.

Aides to the Democratic governor would not comment on what she would do when the measure reaches her desk. But Hobbs has a record of sorts: She vetoed prior legislation to honor Kirk with a license plate to help raise money for TPUSA.

As it turns out, Hobbs actually will get multiple more chances to weigh in on honoring Kirk.

In separate action, lawmakers this week voted along party lines to put Kirk's name on the 78-mile Loop 202 freeway around the Phoenix metro area. Here, too, there was no comment from the governor's office on what fate awaits that measure.

State representatives have previously approved, in a bipartisan fashion, several measures to put a memorial to Bolles in Wesley Bolin Plaza across the street from the Capitol. That's where there already are other memorials, ranging from veterans, pioneer women, the Ten Commandments and Jesuit missionary Father Kino.

Bolles is a former Arizona Republic reporter who was killed in 1976 in a car-bombing when he went to the Clarendon Hotel in Phoenix to meet with a source, later identified as John Harvey Adamson, while investigating a shady land deal. Adamson, who never showed up, agreed to a plea deal to testify against Max Dunlap, who he said had ordered Bolles to be killed because of a story the reporter had written about a friend, liquor magnate Kemper Marley.

All have since died.

In each of multiple prior attempts to honor Bolles, when the measure was approved by the House, it was assigned by Senate President Warren Petersen to the Senate Government Committee, which Hoffman chairs. And Hoffman, in turn, repeatedly refused to provide a hearing for any of them, killing each measure.

Now, however, Hoffman is willing to support honoring Bolles.

"He was a defender of free speech,'' Hoffman told members of the House Government Committee when it heard the bill earlier this week. "And he was also exposing fraud.''

But Hoffman wants it done his way.

That means a monument not only to Bolles but also to Kirk, who was assassinated last year while speaking to students in Utah. Hoffman said that Kirk, who lived in Arizona and headquartered his TPUSA here, also deserves the honor, calling him "a man that was killed defending the right to civil discourse.''

What Hoffman is offering in honoring each of them, however, is not exactly equal.

Each would get a monument in the plaza, assuming that private supporters would raise the necessary dollars.

But SB 1686 also would rename what is now Wesley Bolin Plaza — honoring a former Arizona governor who also was the longest-ever-serving secretary of state — to the "Wesley Bolin and Charlie Clerk Freedom Plaza.''

Hoffman, a Queen Creek Republican, said that extra naming honor, not offered for Bolles, is justified based not just on Kirk's work in organizing high school and college students into chapters modeled after his conservative views but also on the fact of setting up TPUSA in Arizona as well as the massive outpouring at a memorial in Arizona.

Rep. Aaron Márquez objected to tying honoring Bolles with Kirk. But a bid by the Phoenix Democrat to force the issues to be voted on separately failed when all Republicans on the committee refused to go along.

That left the Democrats on the panel with the all-or-nothing package. And that proved unacceptable.

"I'm impressed by the political movement that he built,'' Márquez said. "But I often have seen enough of his statements to give me pause.''

Consider, he said, descriptions of Kirk as a "civil rights activist.''

But Márquez pointed out that Kirk, in his own words, said "We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s.'' That law, said Márquez, strengthened federal enforcement of voting rights and court-ordered desegregation.

He also said that Kirk has made comments critical of gay and transgender rights.

"That makes me come to the position that this state needs to honor,'' Márquez said, even though he did build "an amazing political movement and he did stand up to the First Amendment and engage with people on the other side of his point of view.''

Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton had her own objections, both to renaming the plaza and putting a monument there to honor Kirk.

"Wesley Bolin Plaza is a place meant to honor Arizona's shared history, not serve as a platform for elevating contemporary partisan figures,'' said the Tucson Democrat. "SB 1686 breaks from that tradition and injects politics into a public space that should belong to all Arizonans.''

That language actually mirrors what Hobbs wrote earlier this year when she refused to allow the creation of the license plate to honor Kirk. The governor said it was "inserting politics into a function of government that should remain nonpartisan.''

Rep. Walt Blackman, who chairs the House Government Committee, acknowledged that some people have likened Kirk to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

"Now, I don't necessarily agree with that,'' said the Snowflake Republican.

"My parents knew Dr. King,'' he said. "My parents walked with Dr. King during the march on Washington.''

But Blackman said he sees the issue — and honoring Kirk — as respecting the idea of freedom of speech, even when it is offensive.

"There's a lot of people who didn't agree with what Mr. Kirk said,'' he said. "But we want our rights protected, whether we agree with him or not.''

Hoffman acknowledged the future of his measure could be in doubt when it goes to the governor.

"Katie Hobbs has proven time and time again that she is a radical partisan who adheres to a far left agenda,'' he told Capitol Media Services after the 4-3 party-line committee vote. "We'll see if she has common sense this time and signs what should be a very important bill for our state.''