NEWPORT — A candidate who lost a bid for City Council last week sent an e-mail on Wednesday to members of the council-elect in which he calls one “a drunk” and another a “racist” and a “feeble hillbilly.” He also brought up the sexual orientation of a third council member in a critical context.

The e-mail, also sent to the news media, was written by Robert T. Oliveira, 39, who has been defeated in several attempts to get elected to local and statewide office. From Newport City Hall to the State House in Providence, Oliveira is known in political circles for the anti-Republican diatribes he widely disseminates by e-mail and for the numerous legal complaints he lodges against political foes, including Governor Carcieri’s wife. Several years ago, he admitted to the criminal harassment of officials in Lincoln.

What apparently triggered his attack on the Newport City Council was the council-elect’s decision to name Stephen C. Waluk as its next chairman and mayor. Waluk is a Republican who works as a policy analyst for the state.

) “The entire world went Democrat…,” Oliveira wrote. “No one is going to want to help us now … The members of the Democratic Committee who helped him are in trouble.”

Oliveira also describes numerous “ethical lapses” of the various members of the council-elect during the election that he said will be the subject of complaints he intends to file. He cites campaign contribution and open meeting violations.

Referring to the next two years, he said, “There will be retaliation throughout.” In short, he said, “If the members of the Newport City Council Elect want to commit acts of political war, it is political war they shall have.”

It was, however, the personal attacks that upset several council members.

“Those of us who do the good work are tired of your drunk …,” Oliveira wrote about one council member. “Just shut up and have another drink,” he wrote.

Councilman Stephen Coyne, who is openly gay but has rarely, if ever made a point about his orientation during council functions, strongly objected to Oliveira’s e-mail. Coyne invited his supporters to a gathering at Cathers & Coyne, his downtown shoe store, just prior to before the election. Oliveira did not attend the event, but referred to it in his e-mail.

“His biggest problem may be being a gay man who owns a store where gay activists are present while consorting with the enemy, a Republican,” he wrote.

Oliveira called him “Stephen ‘I’m not a Conciliator, I’m just a wuss’ Coyne.”

Coyne said the public should be made aware of the actions of Oliveira, who garnered 1,400 votes last week, finishing last out of seven at-large candidates. He lost a bid for Newport School Committee two years ago and for state representative in Tiverton in 2000.

“It was offensive,” Coyne said. “When you start taking issue with me as a person, that’s when I take offense… I never ran on a platform of me being a gay man. I have never voted as a gay man. I have never used my sexual orientation to push me one way or another.”

He also objected to the stereotypical pairing of the words “gay” and “wuss.”

Coyne said that Oliveira went from running for office telling people “you should put your trust in me” and then once he lost “all of a sudden it becomes these vicious personal attacks on people … I don’t believe that’s right.”

Charles Duncan, reelected to his ward seat, received the e-mail and, before that, a phone message from Oliveira on his answering machine. Afterward, he called the police to report it.

Duncan, 72, owner of a sign business, grew up in Kentucky and speaks with a southern accent. Oliveira called him a “feeble hillbilly” in the e-mail.

During an election forum at the Newport Daily News, Duncan used the derogatory word “wetback” while discussing illegal immigration. He regrets using the slang word and has apologized. In Oliveira’s letter, he dubs Duncan “Wetbacks.”

“Recently, I called Wetbacks to let him know that I was filing an ethics complaint against him. At no time was he threatened nor was inappropriate language used. Minutes after hearing the message, there was a Newport policeman at my door. I guess the right to express an opinion in Newport has been suspended … Unfortunately, Wetbacks is not only a racist, but a coward.”

Oliveira, an independent sales consultant in the travel industry, said that Duncan’s actions will be conveyed to the Portuguese Consulate and to travel industry officials.

“There will be continued visits and phone calls by others,” he wrote. Oliveira’s friends, he said, will “visit Mr. Duncan at work, at home, at Stop & Shop, at church and on the way into City Hall.”

In the phone call, Oliveira’s tone grows menacing and angry after he begins, “Hey, Charlie, how are you.”

“You did what you have to do and I’m going to do what I have to do,” he said. “Every community in the state went Democat. There will not be a Republican mayor in Newport. … I don’t want to hear any stories about independence, I don’t want to hear any garbage. This is the way it’s going to be. It’s going to be two years of complaints and complaints and lawyers and fees and bills.”

He said that Duncan doesn’t “have the stomach for it” but “this is the path you have sown. You deal with.”

Duncan said that Oliveira has “gone over the edge. I think he needs some help.”

“I don’t think there are words to describe the tone of that letter,” Duncan said. “One in polite company never does something like that.”

Duncan said he was aware of Oliveira’s criminal troubles in Lincoln. After he got the phone call, he contacted his lawyer and was advised to call the police, he said.

In 2002, Oliveira admitted to making early morning phone calls to answering machines of Town Hall officials in Lincoln. He threatened “casualties” and “bloodshed” if the officials did not do something to remove then-Town Administrator Jonathan F. Oster from office. Oliveira pleaded no contest in District Court to five charges of making crank/obscene phone calls. He received a one-year suspended sentence and one year of probation and the judge ordered him to attend substance-abuse counseling.

Oliveira also pleaded no contest in 2001 to disorderly conduct. He received six months of probation.

Oliveira did not return messages seeking comment yesterday.

Waluk, who was at the center of the controversy, condemned Oliveira’s actions. Oliveira said the 29-year-old Waluk, the youngest mayor-elect in city history, is a glorified “copyboy” for the state and is a “kid who practically still lives with his mommy.” Waluk said he moved out of his mother’s house nearly five years ago.

“In five years on the council, I have never seen such hurtful and nasty and personal attacks made on any member of the council. It’s just disgusting,” he said.