President Bush is hitting the money trail with John McCain, and it's paid off after the first of at least three planned fundraisers.

The McCain campaign raked in $3 million from their joint Phoenix, Ariz., fundraiser Tuesday night, FOX News has learned. Former Vice President Dan Quayle was among the more than 500 donors who attended the event.

The evening haul would cap off a more than $4.5 million-day for McCain, who raised about $1.5 million at a Denver fundraiser Tuesday morning.

Bush's appearance with McCain in Phoenix marks the first time he's gone on the trail with the presumptive GOP nominee since he endorsed him at the White House nearly three months ago.

But don't expect to see much of the two men together.

With a job approval rating of about 30 percent, the president presents the McCain campaign with a dilemma.

Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said Democrats' attempts to paint McCain's campaign as a bid for a third Bush term could be effective. MoveOn.org has a new ad out that attempts to portray them as two of a kind.

"They can't live with him and they can't live without him," Sabato said of McCain's relationship with Bush.

The two will appear together in public only briefly Tuesday, for a photo at the Phoenix airport, and then will move into the closed fundraiser. Bush holds two private fundraisers for McCain on Wednesday in Utah. Those events will also benefit the national Republican Party.

"They will come together at times and they will have their own path frequently," McCain adviser Nancy Pfotenhauer said.

In the Albuquerque area, Bush touched down long enough to lead a private fundraiser for Republican congressional candidate Darren White, a local sheriff. New Mexico's 1st Congressional District, historically a safe one for Republicans, is considered wide open this year.

The incumbent, Rep. Heather Wilson, passed up a re-election bid to run for the Senate. Bush is putting his effort behind White, who is seeking his party's nomination on June 3. The event is also raising money for other Republican candidates in the state.

FOX News' Wendell Goler and Mosheh Oinounou and The Associated Press contributed to this report.