COEUR d'ALENE - U.S Speaker of the House John Boehner will visit Coeur d'Alene Friday for a private fundraiser in Congressman Raul Labrador's 1st District.

According to organizers, Labrador is not attending the private event, and he's not talking about it either.

"Sorry it's taken me awhile to get back to you," said Labrador's spokesman Todd Winer, responding to repeated inquiries about the event. "We don't have any comment on the story you're working on."

Ron Nilson, CEO of Ground Force Worldwide, is helping to organize the event at the local level. He said Ed Schweitzer, CEO of Schweitzer Engineering in Pullman, is hosting the event.

"Ed is a friend of mine and he called me up about seven days ago and asked if I could put some people together, and I agreed to do that," Nilson said. "I was scheduled to be in Peru, but I decided to change my plans and meet with the speaker."

The event will raise money for Washington's 5th District Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Speaker Boehner and the Republican Party.

Boehner's campaign confirmed he will be attending the event.

"The speaker's visit is for a private fundraiser - benefiting Republican members and candidates seeking election to Congress - that has been in the works for some time now," an aide said in an email.

Nilson said Boehner is going to discuss with attendees what the Republican Party could be doing differently to be more successful, as well as what the Democratic Party could be doing differently to get Congress back on track.

Curiously, the meeting in Coeur d'Alene is on Labrador's home turf, and though the meeting has been in the works for some time, he will not be attending the event.

Nilson said it was his understanding that Congressman Labrador will not be in town on Friday.

Labrador has a rocky past with the speaker. He was one of 12 Republican House members who refused to vote for Boehner when he ran for House speaker in January.

The Hill Newspaper reported in January that Labrador's handling of the vote stood in sharp contrast to others involved in the anti-Boehner coup attempt.

Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.) has repeatedly accused House leaders of intimidating members into voting for them and warning of likely retribution, while Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), who explains all of his votes on Facebook, wrote on his wall that he was "proud" to back Labrador for speaker over Boehner.

The Idaho Statesman reported in April that Amash held a $1,000-a-plate fundraiser for Labrador in Grand Rapids, Mich., and the two of them established a Political Action Committee together.

Labrador, a former immigration lawyer who grew up in Puerto Rico, told The Hill he could be an asset to party leaders working to reach out to other conservative lawmakers and Tea Party groups to help win them over on the divisive issue.

"One of the reasons that I think I will be successful in pushing a conservative agenda on immigration reform is I have the credibility with the conservative movement," he told The Hill. "They're going to be more likely to listen to me on an issue that's difficult than they would someone from the establishment... That's going to be one of my jobs where I'm most influential: Going to those groups and showing them why this is a conservative issue."

Earlier this month, Labrador walked away from the bipartisan "Group of 8," which was developing a House version of an immigration reform bill. He told FOX News that he walked away because the bill did not address how newly legalized immigrants will be dealt with under Obamacare.

"They decided to punt on the issue," Labrador said, explaining by default 11 million newly legalized immigrants would be eligible for Obamacare.

"Newly legalized people should not receive public benefits," he said.

On Tuesday, The Hill reported that Speaker Boehner is not going to bring the immigration bill to the floor for a vote unless he has a majority vote in his Republican caucus.

Yahoo News reported on Tuesday that House Republicans are going to start a series of meetings to discuss national issues with Hispanic groups.

The House Republican Conference, chaired by McMorris Rodgers, is planning four sessions between Hispanics and Republican lawmakers at the Capitol this summer, according to Yahoo.

"It's important that we're having this two-way conversation and hearing the ideas and concerns from a broad base of people from around the country," McMorris Rodgers told the site, in an interview. "More than anything we want them to know that we want to have this relationship with them.... It's our effort to build relationships with people all around the country to talk to them about issues that impact their daily lives."

Labrador's spokesman would not address questions related to this subject.