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President Bush's visit to Tucson last month cost local taxpayers nearly $100,000, and, despite criticism, the congressional campaign he came to raise money for — Republican Tim Bee's — has no plans to pick up those costs.

The president's roughly 12-hour overnight stay in July cost the Tucson Police Department $57,000 to deploy 165 officers the first day and 166 on the second. The Pima County Sheriff's Department provided 161 deputies each day at a cost of $42,000.

The Foothills fundraiser, which cost $1,000 a plate for breakfast and $10,000 for a photo, was said to have brought in more than $500,000 for Bee — the state Senate president running against Democratic incumbent Gabrielle Giffords in the 8th Congressional District — and other GOP candidates.

At the time of the July 18 fundraiser, neither the White House nor the Bee campaign would provide an estimate of the costs of the visit. The Bee campaign said they would be available in the campaign's next federal report, in October. The campaign is expected to pay part of the costs for Bush's travel, since the trip was not an "official" visit. But those numbers also have not been released.

The Star requested information from the Tucson Police Department in July on how much the visit cost it. The department has now provided the figures.

And the issue continues to dog the Bee campaign, which has never explained what costs it will bear for the visit.

As local Democrats held a news conference Tuesday Downtown at El Presidio Park challenging Bee to pay the costs, the Bee campaign issued a statement that avoided directly answering whether Bee would reimburse law enforcement. But in an interview, campaign spokesman Tom Dunn acknowledged there are no such plans.

Dunn's prepared statement detailed previous candidate visits to Arizona and framed the criticism as "just another partisan attack."

"The election should be about the issues," it read. "The incumbent's team is simply trying to distract the voters."

And the campaign suggested the Democrats were being hypocritical since no one has demanded costs be paid for security needed when former President Bill Clinton visited Tucson in 2006 for a campaign rally featuring Giffords.

Phoenix police, although not able to provide numbers Tuesday, said campaign visits there early this year by Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton also prompted assistance from local law enforcement that was never re- imbursed by the candidates' campaigns.

But at the El Presidio news conference, Vince Rabago, chairman of the Pima County Democratic Party, said that if Bush had visited the Old Pueblo and held some kind of event or rally for the public — as the Obama and Clinton events were — he'd be OK with taxpayers taking care of the costs.

But in tough economic times, when both the Pima County Sheriff's Department and the Tucson Police Department are facing tight budgets, spending money so the president can attend a private fundraiser is over the top, Rabago said.

"When President Clinton came to town, he came to town for big political events," Rabago said. "Bush flew in under the cover of darkness."

Tucson City Councilman Steve Leal, a Democrat, said "there is no public purpose" of Bush's visit. "This is not something government taxes people to pay for," he said at the event.

And Richard Elías, Democratic chairman of the Pima County Board of Supervisors, said the county and the city will need to look into what kind of policies they have regarding presidential visits and if they serve a public purpose. He likened Bee's fundraiser to functions and events that sometimes hire police officers or sheriff's deputies for security.

"I think it's important to recognize this was a private event or fundraiser," Elías said. "We have to be concerned with taxpayer monies."

However, Brad Gagnepain, a Sheriff's Department bureau chief, called the notion that Bee would repay the money "preposterous."

"If you didn't have local law enforcement for these visits, the president wouldn't go anywhere," Gagnepain said. "He'd stay home."

Gagnepain said law enforcement officials don't just escort the president's motorcade, but also assist in counter-sniper efforts and other tactical measures needed for a high-profile visit.

"It's a big deal and we take it very seriously and it's very expensive," he said.

Bush, who stayed at the Westin La Paloma Resort and Spa during the visit last month, became the first sitting president since Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1957 to spend the night in the area.

The visit was Bush's fourth trip to the area while in office, more times than any other sitting president has visited Tucson.

On StarNet: Read more of Daniel Scarpinato's opinions and efforts at go.azstarnet.com/politicalblog.