It is best to hedge your bets in an election year ...

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Ex-aide to Hastert, Romney joins Gates Foundation
Jeffrey Young
Posted: 06/17/08 07:03 PM [ET]

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has hired senior Republican health policy adviser Sally Canfield for its Washington office.

Canfield joined the charitable foundation’s global health, policy and advocacy group on Monday as senior program officer for U.S. government relations.

Most recently, she worked on the presidential campaign of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R).

The Gates Foundation, established by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, has more than $37 billion in its endowment. The foundation is best known for funding global HIV/AIDS and malaria programs and educational programs for low-income children and racial and ethnic minorities.

Prior to her work on the Romney campaign, Canfield worked for then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).

Canfield served in the Bush administration as an adviser to both then-Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and then-Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson. In addition to her time in the Speaker’s office, Canfield’s Capitol Hill experience included stints with GOP Reps. Jim McCrery (La.) and Mac Thornberry (Texas).

The Gates Foundation has undergone some big changes in its leadership in the past two months. In addition to hiring former Microsoft executive Jeff Raikes to be CEO in May, Bill Gates announced on Sunday that he will step down from his day-to-day responsibilities at Microsoft so that he and his wife can focus on growing their foundation. The foundation has offices in Washington, Seattle, Beijing and Delhi, India.

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/ex-aide-to-hastert-romney-joins-gates-foundation-2008-06-17.html