The phrase "associate close to" is not correct in standard written English.
It may be intended to convey a sense of proximity or connection, but it is not a commonly used expression.
Example: "I tend to associate closely with my colleagues during team projects."
Alternatives: "connect closely with" or "relate closely to".
"Paul has the long game in mind, so taking short-term pops at Boehner does not advance the conservative agenda," an associate close to Mr. Ryan said.
A business associate close to Mr. Hultz, who asked to remain anonymous because he had met with F.B.I. agents, estimated that Mr. Hultz's fund had collected $2 million to $3 million.
Morten Storm is a former biker turned European militant Islamist blowhard, turned al-Qaida associate close to some of the most senior operational extremists in the world, turned spy, turned whistleblower.
That detail, which was confirmed by an associate close to Mr. Ryan, deflated speculation that Mr. Romney made his choice in reaction to an outcry that broke out last week, most notably on the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal, which argued forcefully on behalf of Mr. Ryan.
Yet Sugrobov and Kolesnikov were loyal officers of the state, not oppositionists, and they did not dare touch the highest caste of officials and associates close to Putin.
During replication, maternal histones are shared between daughter chromosomes where they re-associate close to their original location (Radman-Livaja et al., 2011; Annunziato, 2005).
CanPIs showing more aa sequence similarity associated close to each other for e.g. CanPI-8, -10 and −11, CanPI-37, -40 and −41, CanPI-13, -16 and −34.
The symmetric exchange model also predicts that even when proteins are directly interacting in adhesion sites, they will not be associated close to adhesion sites unless they are associated also far away from adhesion sites.
An associate comes close to saying it: "The word 'development' affords almost unlimited scope for the broadening of activities.
If you add it all up, Peabody, Engelhardt and Engelhardt's business associates donated close to $700,000 to President Bush and his party last year.
