Brian Bilbray
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromCalifornia
In office January 3, 1995 – January 3, 2001
Preceded by	Lynn Schenk
Succeeded by	Susan Davis
Constituency	49th district
In office June 6, 2006 – January 3, 2013
Preceded by	Duke Cunningham
Succeeded by	Scott Peters (redistricted)
Constituency	50th district
Member of theSan Diego County Board of Supervisors from the 1st district
In office 1985–1995
Preceded by	Tom Hamilton
Succeeded by	Greg Cox
Personal details
Born	Brian Phillip Bilbray (1951-01-28)January 28, 1951 (age 74) Coronado, California, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Karen Bilbray
Children	5
Relatives	James Bilbray (cousin)
Education	Southwestern College

Brian Phillip Bilbray (born January 28, 1951) is an American politician who served in theU.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2001 and again from 2006 to 2013. He is a member of theRepublican Party.

Bilbray was Chairman of theHouse Immigration Reform Caucus and a member of the influentialHouse Energy and Commerce Committee.^[1] His subcommittee assignments on the Energy and Commerce Committee were as follows: Oversight and Investigations, Communication and Technology, and Energy and Power.

Bilbray was born inCoronado, California, and grew up inImperial Beach, California. He graduated fromMar Vista High School, where he played on the football team as alinebacker,^[2] and attendedSouthwestern College, acommunity college inChula Vista, California.^[3][4] He worked as a tax consultant before entering politics.

Bilbray is a cousin of formerNevadaDemocratic RepresentativeJames Bilbray.

An avid surfer, he has compared surfing to politics.^[5][6]

Bilbray became interested in politics when an extensive program of eminent domain was proposed forImperial Beach. He ran successfully for the city council as apopulist, serving during 1976–1978, and was mayor during 1978–1985.

As mayor, Bilbray attempted to build a yacht marina in the Tijuana Estuary and to build a 1.5 mile breakwater off the beach of Imperial Beach.^[7] Both projects were stopped by the opposition of local surfers and environmentalists. TheTijuana River Estuary is now aNational Estuarine Research Reserve andCalifornia State Park. The breakwater project was halted with the help of the then fledglingSurfrider Foundation. From 1985 to 1995, Bilbray was a member of theSan Diego CountyBoard of Supervisors.^[8]

In 1994, Bilbray won the Republican nomination for the49th district, now the 53rd district, which included most ofSan Diego, and defeated freshmanDemocratLynn Schenk in the Republican landslide of that year. The 53rd was one of several marginal districts to go Republican in that cycle. Bilbray was reelected in 1996 and 1998. In 2000, he was defeated byState AssemblywomanSusan Davis.^{[citation needed]}

In 2001, Bilbray registered as a federal lobbyist. His clients includedSan Diego Gas and Electric Company; theViejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians; the San Diego Regional Airport Authority; Conquer Cancer and Alzheimer's Now;Los Angeles County; andFederation for American Immigration Reform.^{[citation needed]}

Bilbray is a member of the ReFormers Caucus ofIssue One.^[9]

Bilbray ran in the 2006 special election to fill the vacancy inCalifornia's 50th congressional district caused by the resignation in December 2005 of fellow RepublicanDuke Cunningham, who pleaded guilty to felony charges of conspiracy and tax evasion, and subsequently went to jail. In March 2005, Bilbray moved toCarlsbad, California, to take care of his mother, who owns a home there.^[10]

The race to assume Cunningham's seat was highly contested, especially on the Republican side, with 14 Republicans (compared with only 2 Democrats) officially running for the position. Leading up to the initial all-candidate election that would determine the parties' candidates in a runoff election, Bilbray was in a virtual tie with Republican businessman Eric Roach,^[11] slightly ahead of former State AssemblymanHoward Kaloogian. Four days before the election, businessman Alan Uke, one of the major Republican candidates, ran an attack ad accusing Roach ofoutsourcing thousands of jobs at the expense of American workers.^[12] In the initial all-party special election on April 11, 2006, Bilbray was the Republican candidate with the most votes, receiving 15% of the total vote to Roach's 15%. He then faced the top vote getters of all the other parties in arunoff election on June 6, 2006: DemocratFrancine Busby,Libertarian Paul King, and William Griffith, an independent.

During the campaign, Arizona SenatorJohn McCain canceled a planned fundraiser for Bilbray at the last minute, after Bilbray called McCain's immigration bill "amnesty" for illegal immigrants.^[13]

Bilbray won the runoff with 49% of the vote, and was sworn in on June 13, 2006, as a member of the Congress. The Republican Party considered this abellwether race because this district had "the perfect storm in favor of the Democrats" according toKen Mehlman, the RNC Chairman at the time of the special election. TheDemocratic National Committee's Voting Rights Institute raised several concerns about the fairness and accuracy of the vote count.^[14] An election contest lawsuit sought a hand recount.

However, Bilbray was sworn in before the vote count was official.^[15] The court dismissed the suit on the basis that, once the House of Representatives had sworn in Bilbray, the court lackedjurisdiction to hear the challenge.^[16]

Bilbray and Busby each won their party's primary, and faced each other again in the November general election. Bilbray defeated Busby by a margin of 54%–44%. Bilbray ran as an opponent of illegal immigration. With the advantage of incumbency and the Republican edge in registrations in the district, Bilbray was initially a clear favorite to win in November. Both theCook Political Report andCQPolitics first rated the race asRepublican Favored. But Busby gained in October, with a late-October poll by SurveyUSA showed Bilbray ahead by just 3 points, for a number of reasons: the general political climate seen as disadvantageous to the GOP, Busby's outraising Bilbray, and Bilbray's low profile campaign. On October 23,CQPolitics changed their rating toLeans Republican.^[17]

Running unopposed in the June primary, Bilbray overcame a strong challenge from DemocratNick Leibham in the November2008 general election. With help from theDCCC^[18] and $1 million in donations,^[19] Leibham ran a string of TV attack ads against Bilbray. Democrats thought they had a chance at winning the district due to the hostile environment plaguing Republicans in general, and shifting demographics locally. Bilbray won, 50% to 46%, with 4% of the vote going toLibertarian candidate Wayne Dunlap.

Due to district realignment after the 2010 census, Bilbrayran as the incumbent in the52nd congressional district in 2012. An all-parties primary was held on June 5, 2012. A runoff between Bilbray andPort of San Diego CommissionerScott Peters, aDemocrat, was held on November 6. The initial vote was very close, so that a winner was not declared until ten days after the election as provisional ballots were counted. On November 16, with Peters ahead by 51% to 49%, Bilbray conceded defeat.^[20]

Since his loss to Congresswoman Susan Davis in 2000, Bilbray has maintained residences and properties inImperial Beach, California;Alexandria, Virginia; andCarlsbad, California. In response to requests to District AttorneyBonnie Dumanis, by the local Democratic Party and neighbors of the congressman, a San Diego Countygrand jury was convened to investigate claims against Bilbray's declared residency for the special and general elections in 2006.^[21] The investigation was dropped in May 2007.^{[citation needed]}

Questions about Bilbray's residency again arose after his reelection on November 6, 2010, when he personally, as well as his children Briana and Patrick, claimed to not live inCalifornia and not qualify for in-state tuition in a class-action lawsuit against theUniversity of California. Brian Bilbray appeared as a named plaintiff residing inVirginia.^[22]

This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(January 2011)

During the 109th Congress Bilbray served on theHouse Armed Services,Veterans Affairs and Government Reform Committees. During his first term Bilbray co-authored legislation that led to the transfer of the Mount Soledad Veteran's Memorial from the City ofSan Diego to the federal government. He also authored legislation that would have reformed the federal budget process.

Bilbray positioned himself as moderate on some social issues while conservative on immigration and fiscal matters.^[23][24] He is a signer of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.^[25]

During his second run for Congress in the 50th district, Bilbray won over many of the district's most conservative voters with his hard line stance on illegal immigration. Since then Bilbray's voting record has been considerably more conservative than it was during his first term. He is a member of both the moderateRepublican Main Street Partnership and the conservativeRepublican Study Committee, two groups with conflicting positions on policy. For example, the RMSP supports embryonic stem cell research and opposes theFederal Marriage Amendment, while the RSC opposes embryonic stem cell research and supports the FMA. He is also a member ofRepublicans for Choice.

Bilbray voted in agreement with PresidentGeorge W. Bush 93% of the time, and as a result was given a 93% Presidential Support Score byCQ Politics in 2006.^[26] He served multiple terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. He represented California's 49th congressional district, which includes parts of San Diego County. He was elected to Congress in a special election in 2006 and subsequently reelected.

In October 2011, Bilbray voted for a bill that would prohibit public funding for abortions. It passed 251–172 in the House. Bilbray almost always has voted for free trade agreements in the past years, specifically with Korea, Colombia, and Panama, all of which passed. The following month, he introduced a new bill which would benefit veterans. It provides job training and internships paid for by federal grants.^[27]

In 2011, he voted for theNational Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 as part of a controversial provision that allows the government and/or the military to indefinitely detain American citizens and others without trial.^[28]

• Committee on Energy and Commerce
  • Subcommittee on Communications and Technology
  • Subcommittee on Energy and Power
  • Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations

• U.S. Congressman Brian Bilbrayofficial U.S. House website
• Bilbray for Congressofficial campaign website
• Appearances onC-SPAN
• Biography at theBiographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Financial information (federal office) at theFederal Election Commission
• Surfing Congressmen Gut Environmental LawsSwing magazine, March 1996

• 1951 births
• 20th-century mayors of places in California
• 20th-century United States representatives
• 21st-century California politicians
• 21st-century United States representatives
• Living people
• Members of Congress who became lobbyists
• People from Carlsbad, California
• People from Chula Vista, California
• People from Imperial Beach, California
• Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from California
• San Diego County Board of Supervisors members
• Southwestern College (California) alumni

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