Christopher Carl Collins (born May 20, 1950) is an American politician, businessman, and convicted felon who served as the U.S. representative for New York's 27th congressional district from 2013 until his resignation in 2019. Collins was elected Erie County Executive in 2007 and held that position for one term. A member of the Republican Party, Collins was the first sitting U.S. Representative to endorse Donald Trump for President of the United States, and he served on Trump's presidential transition team. He resigned his seat in 2019 and afterwards pleaded guilty to insider trading and lying to the FBI.
Collins and his son, Cameron Collins, were arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on August 8, 2018, and charged with insider trading and making false statements. Three days later, Collins announced that he was suspending his bid for a fourth term in Congress; however, on September 17, 2018, he resumed his re-election campaign. Collins was narrowly re-elected to Congress on November 6, 2018, with his 2016 percentage of 67% reduced to 49%. On September 30, 2019, Collins announced his resignation from the House of Representatives. The resignation went into effect the following morning, and, later that day, Collins pleaded guilty. He was pardoned by President Donald Trump on December 22, 2020.
Early life, education, business career, and family
Collins was born in 1950 in Schenectady, New York, the son of Constance (Messier) and Gerald Edward Collins. Collins moved around the country with his family, as his father was transferred several times by General Electric. Collins graduated from Hendersonville High School in Hendersonville, North Carolina, in 1968.
Collins earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University, where he was a member of the Sigma Pi fraternity, in 1972. Collins was inducted into the North Carolina State University Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department Hall of Fame in November 2015. He then earned a master's degree in business administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1975.
Collins worked as a mechanical engineer at Westinghouse Electric. Collins also served as President and CEO of Nuttall Gear Corporation located in Niagara Falls, New York. Nuttall Gear was a 1983 leveraged buyout of the Westinghouse Electric Gear Division located in Buffalo, New York. In 1997, Collins sold Nuttall to Colfax Corporation, based in Annapolis, Maryland.
As of 2018, Collins and his wife, Mary, have three children and three grandchildren.
Collins is Roman Catholic.
Erie County Executive
Elections
Collins ran for Erie County Executive in 2007 on a platform of smaller county government, lower taxes and Six Sigma. His campaign slogan was "Elect a Chief Executive, not a Chief Politician." Collins defeated Democrat James P. Keane, the deputy county executive of the Dennis Gorski administration, with 63% of the vote; his win was considered an upset.
On November 8, 2011, Collins lost his bid for re-election in a race that he was predicted to win. He was defeated by Democratic candidate Mark Poloncarz, the Erie County Comptroller. In a county with 140,000 more Democrats than Republicans, Collins won 39 of the 44 municipalities. Poloncarz won the five remaining municipalities, including the City of Buffalo, by a margin of 81% to 19%.
Tenure
When Collins became Erie County Executive, he inherited from his Republican predecessor, Joel Giambra, a nearly bankrupt county that had state-imposed fiscal control with a budget of $1.2 billion. Collins spoke for three minutes at the 2008 Republican National Convention on September 3, 2008. By June 2009, the state-imposed strict oversight of the Erie County budget ended.
Collins recruited a Six Sigma Master Black Belt from the University at Buffalo who had previously worked as an executive at Delphi to implement Lean Six Sigma across all county departments under the direction of the county executive to improve efficiency and reduce costs. The position's $115,000 salary plus associated costs was funded by a grant of taxpayer money from the Erie County Control Board.
Collins sued the county so that he could unilaterally increase the county attorney's salary. The State Supreme Court Judge presiding over the case ruled in favor of Collins and awarded the higher salary to the incoming County Attorney.