Bilbray Hobnobs with T. Boone

GOP congressman Brian Bilbray, fresh from his skeet-shooting fund-raiser in the hunt country of Virginia last month, will soon be back among Southern California’s landed gentry with a genteel fund-raiser set for July 23 at the Del Mar Country Club, hosted by Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens and wife Madeleine, who have an estate nearby. According to the invitation, posted on the Sunlight Foundation’s Party Time website, the guest of honor will be House Speaker John Boehner, who has of late been going toe-to-toe with President Barack Obama over the shape of the national budget. Members of the local host committee include Poway contractor Doug Barnhart; builder Scott McMillin; lobbyist Ben Haddad; weight-loss queen Jenny Craig; La Jolla maven Leon Parma; and Sandy Kahn, son of late Los Peñasquitos developer Irwin Kahn. The tab to get into a roundtable featuring a pep talk by Boehner is $2500 per person. A reception afterward costs just $500 a person.