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RALEIGH — President Bush is scheduled to return to Greensboro on Sept. 30 for a fundraiser, presenting a curious mix of boon and danger for Republicans running for election this year.

“The president is coming as a surrogate to help raise money and awareness and votes for Sen. (John) McCain and Gov. (Sarah) Palin,” said Aldona Wos , who with her husband, Louis DeJoy , will host the event.

Wos is former U.S. ambassador to Estonia. DeJoy is CEO of New Breed, a logistics company based in High Point.

This is not the first big-name fundraiser the couple has hosted in their Irving Park home. Bush visited in 2006 and capped a daylong policy swing through the area with a dinner at the residence.

Karl Rove appeared at a fundraiser there in September 2005.

Wos said she did not have a firm fix on the number of people expected to attend because invitations only recently went out.

According to the invitation, doors will open at 4 p.m. and guests will be asked to arrive no later than 4:30 p.m.

Bush canceled a fundraising trip this week in Alabama and Florida. If this one comes to pass, it will be just more than a month before the election, and some political observers say state-level candidates might have reason to be uncomfortable with the visit.

According to opinion polls, the president’s generic job approval rating is between 30 percent and 40 percent, dipping to 25 percent in some states such as California.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole “is the one who obviously is affected the most,” said Andrew Taylor, a political science professor at N.C. State. “She hasn’t explicitly tried to distance herself from the president, but there’s no real embrace of the president. It doesn’t help her that people will be reminded that she and the president share party affiliation.”

Dole is locked in a tighter-than-expected re-election campaign against state Sen. Kay Hagan , a Greensboro Democrat who has attracted national attention for her aggressive campaign and ability to keep pace with the widely known Dole.

When asked about the scheduled presidential visit, Hagan spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan cited Dole’s record of voting in concert with the president 92 percent of the time, a statistic that campaign has used for months in television ads and on the stump.

“President Bush may go, but his legacy will live on if we re-elect Elizabeth Dole to the U.S. Senate,” Flanagan said.

Worth noting is that Hagan has appeared at events organized by the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama during the summer, including a Greensboro rally featuring his wife, Michelle.

During the campaign, Dole has taken pains to point out where she has differed with the president, including during a high-profile showdown over an immigration reform bill that died in the Senate a year ago.

A spokesman for the Dole campaign said the senator is scheduled to be in Washington on that date but said having the president in the state is a good thing.

“President Bush is always welcome in North Carolina,” said Dan McLagan . “We have had his wife in to campaign with Sen. Dole.”

That was in August.

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com