Rosinha, who had also been secretary of Social Services under him, adopted the stage name Garotinho (originally a nickname he took while working as a radio broadcaster) to have her image associated with that of the husband.

Rosinha was elected governor on the PSB ticket after a fierce competition with the Workers Party, which until 2002 was part of the State's government in an alliance between Brizola's PDT.

In a pamphlet distributed at the time, she and her husband were charged with "manipulating simple people's faith, mixing religion and politics in a dangerous salad" in a "messianic and mistaken attitude".

[2] During her gubernatorial tenure, although belonging to a nominally Left party, Rosinha nevertheless assumed the usual morally conservative stances proper to evangelical politics worldwide:[3] she was the first prominent Brazilian politician to jump into the creationist bandwagon, by taking advantage of a State law (State Law 3495/2000, enacted by her husband) that stated that the public educational system was to offer religion classes on a confessional basis - i.e., that public schools were to pay teachers of religion chosen by different confessions' caucuses (namely Catholics, evangelicals and all others)[4][5] She was also accused of an aggressive stance towards Afro-Brazilian religions, typical of Brazilian Pentecostalism in general,[6] as well as anti-gay bigotry: during her tenure, Rosinha followed her husband in blocking and vetoing any legislative initiative granting members of same-sex unions involving state public servants to receive pensions for their deceased partners.

[11] Along with her husband and Pudim, Rosinha was found guilty of, according to the sentence, distributing social help at random, including houses sold by the government at the symbolic 1R$ rate, offering money for votes, and distributing "school kits" (paper notebooks, briefcases, backsacks, pens and pencils, and other similar items) to students during the electoral campaign in Campos, something forbidden under Brazilian Electoral Law.