Former top aide to run Brown's Senate bid

(CNN) - A former longtime close aide to Scott Brown is rejoining the former senator from Massachusetts as he moves closer and closer to running for the Senate in neighboring New Hampshire.

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Colin Reed, deputy communications director for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, confirmed to CNN Friday that he's left his job in Trenton to serve as Brown's campaign manager.

"I've known Scott for more than four years. This opportunity to work with him again is something that I couldn't pass up. I am excited for the next seven months and a victory in November's election," said Reed, who was already in New Hampshire traveling on the campaign trail with Brown.

Reed was part of the team at the National Republican Senatorial Committee that helped Brown, then a little-known state senator, to an upset win in a special election in January 2010 to serve the final three years of the term of the late Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy, who had died the previous summer.

The Massachusetts native then served in Brown's Senate office in Washington as his press secretary before heading back to the Bay State in 2011 to serve as communications director for Brown's 2012 re-election campaign. Brown lost his bid for a full six-year term to Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren.

Last year, Brown passed on running in a special election in Massachusetts to fill the term of John Kerry, who left the Senate to become secretary of state. And at the time, Brown also announced that he wouldn't make a 2014 bid for an open governor's seat in the Bay State.

Brown made a number of speaking appearances at GOP events in New Hampshire last year, where he spent much of his childhood and where he owned a vacation home. Last fall, in another hint about a possible run, he dropped the 'MA' from his Twitter handle.

A few months later, he sold his home in Massachusetts and moved his residency north to the Granite State. Last month, Brown announced that he was forming an exploratory committee, which allowed him to raise money and hire staff for a Senate bid. Brown's expected to formally announce his candidacy in the near future.

Brown joins three other Republicans who are running for their party's Senate nomination in New Hampshire: former U.S. Sen. Bob Smith, former state Sen. Jim Rubens, and conservative activist Karen Testerman. The winner will face off against Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, also served six years as the state's governor.

If Brown ends up winning the GOP's September primary, it could expand the map for Republicans. Democrats hold a 55-45 majority in the Senate (53 Democrats and two independents who caucus with the party), but are defending 21 of the 36 seats up in November, with half of those Democratic-held seats in red or purple states, like New Hampshire.

Reed's move to New Hampshire may also help his old boss. If Christie, who's seriously considering a bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, does end up running for the White House, he'll have two former aides working in the Granite State: Reed and Matt Mowers, the executive director of the New Hampshire Republican Party.

New Hampshire plays a crucial role in presidential politics, as it hold the first primary in the road to the White House.

Reed move to become Brown's campaign manager was first reported by WMUR's James Pindell.