When the U.S. Chapter of the International Association of Airport and Seaport Police announced Wednesday that it is bestowing an award on former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R), a familiar name appeared on the news release: Chris Battle.

Now a vice president for the Adfero Group, which is handling media for the seaport police, Battle was a longtime aide to former Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.) — who happens to be speaking at the association’s annual conference in Washington, D.C., which runs June 6-9. Giuliani will receive the award at a dinner on June 7.

Hutchinson also is a former undersecretary for border and transportation security at the Department of Homeland Security and former head of the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Battle worked for Hutchinson on Capitol Hill and later became chief of staff for the immigration and customs enforcement unit at Homeland Security. Last cycle, he managed Hutchinson’s unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign in Arkansas.

Giuliani, a frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, will be the recipient of the police association’s first annual Fred V. Morrone Memorial Award.

“I can think of no better recipient of the first Morrone Award than Mayor Giuliani, who stood in the smoke and rubble of the attacks working side by side with our police officers,” U.S. Airport and Seaport Police Director Jay Grant said in a statement. “He was a friend and colleague of Fred Morrone and we are pleased to honor him with this award.”

Fred Morrone was superintendent of the New York and New Jersey Port Authority Police Department and one of 37 port police officers who died in the World Trade Center towers — which were owned and operated by the Port Authority — on Sept. 11, 2001. He was the highest ranking police officer to die in the attacks.

— Lauren W. Whittington