[quote]Ridge, Pollsters Met During Bush Campaign

Thu Feb 17, 8:37 AM ET

By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge met privately with Republican pollsters twice in a `10-day` span last spring as he embarked on more than a dozen trips to presidential battleground states.

Ridge's `get-togethers` with Republican strategists Frank Luntz and Bill McInturff during a period the secretary was saying his agency was playing no role in Bush's `re-election` campaign were revealed in daily appointment calendars obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act.

"We don't do politics in the Department of Homeland Security," Ridge told reporters during the election season.
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