FP1 Strategies announced on Monday the hiring of Corey Vale as vice president of digital strategy.

Vale most recently served as digital director for former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s presidential campaign, where he led the team responsible for digital strategy, social media outreach, Web development and online fundraising and advertising.

Vale previously served as Internet director for Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) 2010 re-election campaign, which won a digital award at the Pollies. He has also managed projects for corporate clients including Disney, Apple, Sony, YouTube and Netflix.

Vale joins FP1 founders Terry Nelson, Jon Downs and Danny Diaz. “His knowledge of the digital landscape and national political experience will be invaluable to our clients,” Nelson said in a statement.

FP1 services include public affairs campaign management, grass-roots coalition building and management, paid advertising, media placement, press relations, crisis communication expertise, public opinion research and targeting, and new media and online grass-roots advocacy.

Unleashing the Furey

Axiom Strategies announced it has hired Shawn Furey as an associate to focus primarily on the firm’s Missouri campaigns.

Furey, most recently chief of staff to a Missouri state Senator, worked with the Senate Majority Fund, helping to organize a grass-roots network in the St. Louis area. He also served as campaign manager for state Sen. John Lamping’s (R) upset win last year.

“Shawn is an experienced grassroots campaigner with a history of success in Missouri. … I believe he will be a major asset to our Missouri clients,” Axiom president and founder Jeff Roe said in a statement.

Axiom is a full-service political consulting, public affairs and public relations firm with offices in Kansas City and Washington, D.C.

On a Granite State Roll

Shortly before Newt Gingrich won the endorsement of the New Hampshire Union Leader editorial board, the former Speaker’s New Hampshire campaign operation snagged another staffer who formerly worked for the presidential campaign of Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.).

NBC News reported former Bachmann state director Jeff Chidester was hired to work with senior adviser Jim Wieczorek to build a coalition of tea party support and a state steering committee. The new hire boosted Gingrich’s state staff to eight, including at least three other new hires in the last month.

Chidester was among the Bachmann staffers in New Hampshire to resign en masse. Another, Matt LeDuc, serves as Gingrich’s state communications director.

PAC Up and Go Time

Former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) and Brian O. Walsh, the heads of the newly formed Congressional Leadership Fund, are speaking at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast this morning.

The super PAC, which officially launched Oct. 11, is currently in fundraising mode as it builds up resources for independent expenditures next year on behalf of Republican House candidates.

The group held its first event Nov. 2 at the Capitol Hill Club. It featured the top GOP House leaders and some 80 Republican Members.

Its leadership is similar to that of American Action Network, a 501(c)(4), with Walsh serving as president of both groups. Coleman is chairman of both boards, and board members include former Reps. Tom Reynolds (R-N.Y.) and Vin Weber (R-Minn.), as well as Fred Malek, founder of American Action Network.

Abuzz With VoterBuzz

Florida political consultant Andrea Torkelson and the team at VoterBuzz have launched a new app to allow candidates and voters to more easily interact, McClatchy Newspapers reported.

The app, in which the company has invested $250,000, is available to Apple and Android smartphone users. Campaigns, committees and outside groups will pay a monthly subscription fee of $50 to $350 to inform voters about news, events and fundraising, McClatchy reported.

Smartphone users can follow as many campaigns as they want, and the app allows them to search for candidates they might want to support by type, level, geographic area and specific office.

Torkelson told McClatchy she has a database of 10,000 political candidates to contact and has already met with President Barack Obama’s campaign and the Congressional committees from both parties.

“Luckily, we know a lot of people in the political world, so we’re getting a lot of ‘love’ business from many of them,” she said.

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