In early September, a staffer for former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore's struggling presidential campaign was arrested for sending more than 100 Facebook messages — some sexually suggestive — to a woman in South Carolina.
The Gilmore campaign told BuzzFeed News that the accused operative, Richard Lowrance, was fired shortly after he was brought onto the campaign, but would not specify the date or reason for his termination.
Lowrance, who is charged with 1st degree harassment, is not allowed to leave South Carolina, though he lives in New Hampshire. He is required to wear an ankle bracelet that monitors his movements.
FEC records show that the Gilmore campaign paid Lowrance $5,000 on Sept. 1 to serve as state organization director in New Hampshire (one of Gilmore's largest expenses, according to Politico). Dick Leggitt, a Gilmore spokesman, said the money was an advance to get Lowrance started and that he started work on the day he was paid.
Two days after he was paid, however, Lowrance was arrested after a woman contacted the police department of Greer, S.C., to complain that he had sent her dozens of "strange messages" between Dec. 27, 2014, and Jan. 11 of this year. According to the police report, the content of the messages, 81 of which went unreturned, ranged from Lowrance describing a dream he had of the alleged victim to "insinuating that" they "were in a current relationship."
After receiving a message in which Lowrance wrote he was "not going to be happy, whatsoever," if she did not pick up a call from him, the alleged victim responded, and said that the behavior was unacceptable. She asked him not to contact her again.
The messages resumed on Aug. 30, according to the police report. The Greer police officer, who says the alleged victim provided him with 33 pages of Facebook messages from Lowrance, reports that Lowrance sent 46 messages to her between that day and the next. One read, "I now understand why I was getting so horny in the morning, you using this technology on me to instigate situations." Lowrance also sent her a package via UPS.
The woman told the police officer that she last saw Lowrance in 2012.
Lowrance was released from jail on Sept. 11 on a bond of $7,000, according to the solicitor's office of Greenville County. The terms of his bond stated that he must remain in South Carolina, though the solicitor's office says his lawyer has filed a motion, to be heard on Monday, to allow him to return to his home in New Hampshire.
A spokesperson for Gilmore's campaign told BuzzFeed News that Lowrance worked for the Gilmore campaign for "less than a matter of weeks," before later saying that it was "a matter of days" before the operative was let go.
"We learned things about him him after he was hired that made it very plain he wasn't someone we wanted connected with us," Leggitt said, adding that, though Lowrance was "given certain duties to fulfill," the campaign didn't believe "he fulfilled any of them."
"So basically we were another victim of his activities," Leggitt said.
Reached by phone on Monday, Jim Gilmore himself stated of Lowrance, "He does not work for us anymore. Has not for quite some time," but would not confirm the precise reason for Lowrance's dismissal.
Lowrance told BuzzFeed News he couldn't comment on the arrest and referred to his position with the campaign as "field director."
According to the police report, Lowrance confirmed to the police officer that he had sent a "package of flowers" to the victim's address. He said that the ordeal "must have been a misunderstanding" and also said he was sorry. He expressed a wish that the woman had contacted him "one more time" to tell him to stop harassing her.
On Tuesday, a day after being contacted by BuzzFeed News, Gilmore sent out a press release announcing Anne Smith as his new New Hampshire state coordinator.
Gilmore, who falls short of 1% in most polls, is largely self-funding his campaign.