Tad Furtado, a longtime aide to Republican Charles Bass, made some unwelcome publicity for his boss during his failed 2006 bid for a seventh House term in New Hampshire. Furtado had posed on political blogs as a disenchanted Democrat raising doubts about the viability of the party’s nominee, Paul W. Hodes. Furtado was forced to resign as Bass’ congressional policy director two months before the election, which Hodes won with 53 percent.

But Bass was awfully loyal to his former aide. He kept Furtado on the House payroll through October, even though he’d supposedly resigned a month before. And when Bass went on to chair the moderate GOP lobby the Republican Main Street Partnership this winter, he brought Furtado with him as a policy aide.

Now, however, Furtado has brought Bass more bad publicity — via a complaint sworn out by an ex-girlfriend in D.C. Superior Court alleging a disturbing entry into her apartment after the couple broke up in March. And Bass’ patience apparently has run out.

“Tad tendered his resignation this morning,” Bass said May 2, adding that he had “no other comment on any of this stuff except to say I knew nothing about it until late in the afternoon” the day before, when Congressional Quarterly contacted him about the situation.

The charges are serious. In court papers filed last month, Furtado’s girlfriend of 10 months, Renee Howell — the chief of staff to Republican Rep. Mark Souder of Indiana — alleges that Furtado snuck into her apartment in April and trashed the place.

Howell alleges that Furtado slashed every piece of furniture in her home with a knife. He did the same thing to her lingerie, her complaint contends — and then proceeded to douse her underwear drawer with Tabasco sauce. Howell also says Furtado poured bleach over many of her clothes, threw eggs, olives, beer and yogurt in her washer and dryer, and threw some of their vacation photos from Paris in her toilet.

She also says she suspects Furtado stole some of her family pictures and some artwork — and took a drawer full of neckties he’d left in the apartment.

Though Howell concedes in her court filing that she didn’t catch Furtado in her Logan Circle abode, she says he knew the building access code and where she kept a spare key. The filing says Furtado had previously entered her home unannounced and once tried to steal her BlackBerry from her office after they broke up.

Superior Court Judge Hiram E. Puig-Lugo granted Howell a two-week restraining order last week, barring Furtado from contacting her or coming within 100 feet of her.

Neither Howell nor Furtado returned calls left at their homes and offices; Howell’s court papers don’t indicate that either of them has hired an attorney. But in her filing, Howell says she wants Furtado to pay for the damage she says he caused and to return everything she alleges has been stolen. The case’s next court date is set for May 15.