Evan Vitale Consulting: Despite probe, Collins aide leaves for consulting job

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Despite probe, Collins aide leaves for consulting job – Buffalo News

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WASHINGTON – Christopher M. Grant, the longtime congressional aide whose Akron home was raided in May as part of a state corruption investigation, is leaving the office of Rep. Chris Collins to join the nation’s largest Republican direct-mail political consulting firm.

Grant, 34, will join Axiom Strategies’ Washington office as a vice president, ending his tenure as chief of staff to Collins, R-Clarence, a role he filled since Collins joined Congress in January 2013. Grant previously served as chief of staff to Collins when he served as Erie County executive from 2008 to 2011.

Asked if his departure was at all connected to the investigation, Grant said the two are unrelated. Even if the investigation hadn’t happened, he said, he would have joined Axiom.

“This is an awesome chance to do what I love doing on the national level,” Grant said.

Meanwhile, Collins heaped praise on his departing aide, who helped transform Collins from blunt-spoken businessman to blunt-spoken politician.

Calling Grant “a tremendous chief of staff,” Collins said:

“We have worked closely over the last 10 years, and while I am very sorry to see him move on, I recognize that this is a tremendous opportunity.”

Asked about the investigation – which also involves former Erie County Democratic Chairman Steven Pigeon and Steven M. Casey, former top aide to Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown – Grant said: “We haven’t really heard anything else. We will continue to cooperate and answer questions if asked.”

No charges have been filed in connection with the investigation, which apparently stems from the fact that Casey and Grant – a Democrat and a Republican, respectively – worked together on political campaigns, sometimes with Pigeon, possibly without directly reporting their consulting-work payments directly to the state as the law requires.

Little new has surfaced about the investigation since May, when state and federal law enforcement officials also searched the homes of Pigeon and Casey.

The investigation obviously didn’t trouble Rob Phillips, the chief operating officer at Axiom, which bills itself as the nation’s largest political consulting firm.

Announcing the hiring of Grant as well as Matt Langston, a political consultant from Texas, Phillips said:

“This couldn’t have come at a more important time for Axiom Strategies as we continue to provide winning strategies for our political and corporate clients across the country.”

email: jzremski@buffnews.com

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