By Carl Weiser
Enquirer Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - President Bush will return to Cincinnati on Monday for a fund-raiser at the home of investor Bill DeWitt.

The $25,000-a-couple fund-raiser comes less than a week after Sen. John Kerry's Cincinnati fund-raiser, held downtown Tuesday.

Chairman Bob Bennett of the Ohio Republican Party confirmed the Bush visit late Tuesday.

The evening fund-raiser will be at DeWitt's Indian Hill home.

The money will go toward the Republican National Committee's Victory 2004 campaign. That's because under campaign finance laws, the RNC can collect $25,000 from an individual per election while the Bush-Cheney campaign can collect only $2,000.

But the higher ticket cost means the guest list is more exclusive. Neither Bush's Southwest Ohio campaign chairman, Mike Allen, nor Bush's Hamilton County campaign chairman, Greg Hartmann, said they were invited.

Bush was last in Cincinnati on May 4 for a campaign rally at Cincinnati Gardens.

His most recent appearance at a local fund-raiser was in September at the Indian Hill estate of Carl Lindner III. It raised $1.7 million.

White House and campaign officials declined comment, and it's not clear whether Bush will conduct other public events in the Tristate that day.

E-mail cweiser@gannett.com