currents - Pacific San Diego Magazine

“We used to pull Mexican nationals out of our swimming pool,
because they would jump our backyard fence not realizing that we had a pool.”
the life of Brians
A new political dynasty has washed ashore in San Diego County
By Pat Sherman • MAIN Photo by greg ronlov
Sandy-haired surfer Brian Patrick
Bilbray won his bid for a seat on
the Imperial Beach City Council
on November 2—the same day his
father, Brian Phillip Bilbray, won
another term as a Representative for
California’s 50th Congressional District in coastal
North County.
The elder Bilbray began his own career as an
IB city councilman in 1976, eventually becoming
that city’s mayor and a county supervisor.
“I’ve lived in Imperial Beach pretty much my
whole life,” says “Pat” Bilbray, as he’s known to
friends and locals at I.B. gathering spots such
as Scoreboard II and Ye Olde Plank Inn. “I love
the small town kind of feel. I’ve tried to get away
from it, but it keeps drawing me back.”
An avid surfer, sailor and Republican (like his
father), Bilbray says he caught his first wave at
age eight, while on a trip to Baja with his father,
then a county supervisor.
“The first time I properly dropped into a wave
was down just south of Ensenada,” Bilbray says.
“I was so proud of myself. My dad jokes that my
first steps were on a boat going from San Diego
to San Clemente Island.”
Bilbray was elected to complete the four-year
term of Councilman Fred McLean, who died of
pneumonia in 2009. Though on his Facebook
page Bilbray describes his political stance as “right
of middle,” he says he is more liberal on social
issues than his father, favoring amnesty for illegal
immigrants once the border is secure and certain
conditions are met. His father is strongly opposed
to offering citizenship to illegal immigrants.
“I’ve been knee-deep in this issue since I was
little,” Bilbray says. “We used to pull Mexican
nationals out of our swimming pool, because they
would jump our backyard fence not realizing that
we had a pool. I probably understand (the issue) a
little bit better than someone from Wisconsin.”
Bilbray says part of his motivation to run for
City Council was seeing the beach continuously
dotted with closure signs (his father championed
a sewage treatment plant in Tijuana that never
came to fruition).
“I just felt that City Hall wasn’t really taking
the leadership role that I would like them to take
with the Tijuana sewage,” he says. “I thought if
I got on there I could really start pushing City
Hall to petition the federal government like we
should. Having my dad in there helps; we can
start really putting pressure on Mexico.”
Bilbray says he doesn’t feel enough federal
money flows into his seaside hamlet, given that
I.B. is home to a federal wildlife preserve and
the Navy’s Ream Field. The City also collects the
lowest per capita sales tax revenue in the county.
He believes he can help I.B. businesses prosper
and clean up the town’s shabby image.
Bilbray and his younger sister, Briana,
attended West Potomac High School in
Alexandria, Virginia, while their father was
serving as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C. As
a boy, Bilbray says he longed to follow in his
father’s footsteps, but he lost his passion for
politics after high school. While enrolled in
courses at Mesa and San Diego City Colleges (he
never graduated), he briefly worked in his older
brother’s plumbing business in Nevada.
“I wanted to be more of a surfer than
anything,” says Bilbray, who rides a six-foot
“potato chip” short board.
“I ended up going off to Europe, working on a
pleasure yacht for two years. I was the deckhandslash-engineer’s
mate.”
Bilbray says he did not tell his father he was
planning to run for office last year.
“I was kind of trying to keep it a secret from
him,” he says. “He was excited, but a little
apprehensive because he knows how mellow of
a guy I am. He didn’t think that I would be able
to take the criticism that goes along with politics,
but I think I’ll be all right. When you grow up
around this type of stuff, you learn how to let
things roll off your back.”
Like Father,
Like Son
Comparing the region’s
Republican dynasties
Duncan Duane Hunter, 34, and father
Duncan Lee Hunter, 62: The elder Hunter
served as a congressional representative from
1981 to 2009. His son, a U.S. Marine and veteran
of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, replaced
his father in the 52nd District (East County) seat
in January of 2009. Duncan D. holds a degree
in business administration from SDSU; Duncan
L. attended Thomas Jefferson School of Law in
San Diego.
Brian Patrick Bilbray, 25, and father
Brian Phillip Bilbray, 59: The elder Bilbray
served as Imperial Beach’s mayor before
going on to join the San Diego County Board of
Supervisors and the U.S. Congress. The younger
Bilbray was elected to the Imperial Beach City
Council in November. Brian Philip is a graduate
of Southwestern College; Brian Patrick attended
classes at City and Mesa community colleges.
Pat Sherman
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