Negative Mailer Leaves Rita Lamb Laughing

Negative Mailer that Describes Rita Lamb as ‘Failing’ Fails to Unnerve Her

CATHEDRAL CITY — Campaign literature that dropped into residents’ mailboxes last week and is designed to paint City Councilmember Rita Lamb as a failure has unleashed Lamb’s sense of humor — and has residents denouncing the man behind the mailer and his actions.

“With my background in elementary education, I am uniquely prepared for this moment,” Lamb told Uken Report as she laughed aloud. “I’m sure this is the first in a series.”

Lamb indicated she has no time to engage in campaign negativity. “My responsibility is to be focused on the residents.”

The mailer relies on an unflattering picture of Lamb to mock and ridicule her as a failure. She is not taking the bait.

“Did you see that picture?” she asked with a laugh.

The man behind the mailer is Alan Carvalho who is challenging Lamb for the District 1 seat in the Nov. 3 election Lamb has been on City Council for one year filling the vacancy left by the death of Mayor Gregory S. Pettis. 

She is seeking a four-year term and has the support of a majority of the City Council.

Residents of the community are denouncing the mailer and among them — a friend, Sue Townsley, a respected and celebrated woman of the community. “… I do not support the anti-Rita postcard I received yesterday …, she posted on Facebook.

Keith Coleman also took to Facebook to denounce the mean-spirited move. “Tacky is the word for Alan Carvalho’s latest stunt in the form of a deceitful, nasty mailer sent out in District One this week. It surprises no one that Carvalho has stooped so low as to drag Rita Lamb’s good name through the mud. This classless flyer exposes how desperate he is to win …, the post reads in part.

The mean-spirited mailer came as a surprise to some though it probably should not have,

Every candidate for public office in California is encouraged to subscribe to the Code of Fair Campaign Practices and pledge to follow the basic principles of decency, honesty and fair play to protect from dishonest and unethical practices. Carvalho did not sign the pledge.

You may read the pledge and see the form here.

Carvalho declined to comment for this story.