He worked with Harvey Milk on his political activism and campaigns for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Rivaldo worked on campaigns for candidates including Michael Hennessey, Willie Brown, Dennis Herrera, Ella Hill Hutch, Bevan Dufty, and Sophie Maxwell.

Rivaldo analyzed voter lists, accompanied Milk on campaign stops, and edited his speeches and brochures.

[3] Rivaldo, Frank M. Robinson, and Danny Nicoletta worked on Milk's 1975 campaign for San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Though Milk lost, Rivaldo noted that he had won in the Castro and Haight-Ashbury districts, telling him, "We got the hippie, McGovern, and fruit voters.

They envisioned it as an antithesis to the Alice B. Toklas Memorial Democratic Club, which did not push for gay people to be represented in government.

[1] In 1978, he made brochures opposing the Briggs Initiative, which would have banned homosexual teachers in public schools.

[1] Milk appointed him as San Francisco's representative in the California Coastal Commission,[9] making him the state's first openly gay commissioner.

[12] For the fifteenth anniversary of the assassination, he designed a plaque to mark the site of Milk's camera store.

[2] In the 2003 San Francisco mayoral election, Rivaldo did not work on any campaign but supported Gavin Newsom.

[15] Other campaigns he worked on included Ella Hill Hutch, Bevan Dufty, and Sophie Maxwell.

[1] Rivaldo worked on Kamala Harris's first campaign, running for District Attorney of San Francisco in 2003.

"[19] On September 25, 2007, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors gave a commendation to Rivaldo and, posthumously, Pabich.

[20] Writing for The Bay Area Reporter, Shum Preston, an associate of Rivaldo, called him a "great gay genius lost to history".