An attack ad directed at a candidate for Roanoke City Council carries a fictitious name of the person who supposedly paid for it. And in what appears to be a violation of state law, the political action committee behind the ad is not registered with the Virginia State Board of Elections.

The newspaper advertisement in question, which ran in The Roanoke Times over the weekend -- just days before today's municipal election -- takes shots at Court Rosen. It describes the Democratic nominee for council as "an inexperienced 29-year-old with zero community involvement."

At the bottom of the ad is a line that states: "Paid for by Joe Smith, Citizens for Sensible Decisions."

But as it turns out, there is no Joe Smith.

"That's a made-up name just because the newspaper said you had to have a name on it," Winfred Noell, an organizer of Citizens for Sensible Decisions, said Monday. Noell said someone with the organization gave the Joe Smith alias after being told by The Roanoke Times' advertising department that a name was required to run with the ad.

And as it turns out, Citizens for Sensible Decisions is not registered with the State Board of Elections as a political action committee, as it was required to do before placing the ad, according to Barbara Cockrell, director of operations for the state board.

"The picture has been clouded because this advertisement has been run and the information is not readily available" about who placed it, Cockrell said.

A slightly different version of the ad, minus the fictitious name, ran Friday in The Roanoke Star-Sentinel. Both suggest Rosen is the "hand-picked 'yes man' " of incumbent Mayor Nelson Harris, who is also on the ballot today.

A vote for Rosen, the ad stated, is a vote for Harris and his "closed door politics."

Harris and Rosen condemned the ad Monday.

"This kind of negative campaigning to me is just totally anti-thetical to the character of this community," Harris said. "My hope is that it will backfire and that people will not respond to these ads in the way those who have footed the bill for them would hope."

Rosen added: "This kind of misleading politics is what prevents people from wanting to run for office. It is disrespectful to the community, it is disrespectful to the city council, and I'm confident the voters will see this false and negative ad and this attack for what it is -- which is a continuing effort to divide the city."

Since the ads ran, the State Board of Elections has received several inquiries and one complaint, Cockrell said. The person who complained was told to contact the city commonwealth's attorney.

Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell said late Monday afternoon that no one has contacted his office. But if someone makes a complaint, he said, the office would decide if charges are appropriate.

"It's truly unfortunate that people have to sink to this level to try to influence an election," Caldwell said.

Most infractions of state law regarding political advertisements carry a potential civil fine of $1,000 or less; willful violations are misdemeanors that could result in jail time.

Just who placed the ad in the newspapers remained unclear Monday.

Nan Mahone, a spokeswoman for The Roanoke Times, said the newspaper's policy is not to identify who purchased any ad. Stuart Revercomb, publisher of the Star-Sentinel, said late Monday afternoon that information was not available about who put the ad in his paper.

Noell, who called himself the unofficial treasurer of Citizens for Sensible Decisions, said he did not know who in the organization wrote the ad and then paid for its publication. He said Suzanne Osborne, another organizer of the group, was involved in some way. Osborne did not return a call Monday.

Citizens for Sensible Decisions was contacted by the Board of Elections on Monday and told that it should either register with the state or disband, Noell said.

"We're trying to go by the law," Noell said. "We're not trying to do anything underhanded."

Noell also raised the possibility that Brian Wishneff, a member of city council who is running for re-election today, was involved with the ad. Wishneff is a staunch political enemy of Harris and has been critical of Rosen.

"I think he was definitely aware of the ads coming out, and I'd say he probably knew the content of the ads," Noell said.

According to state law, a political advertisement that opposes one candidate must also disclose the name of another candidate who is intended to benefit from the ad "if the sponsor [of the ad] coordinates with, or has the authorization of, the benefited candidate."

Wishneff did not return three calls Monday to his business and his cellphone.

The ads that ran in The Roanoke Times and the Star-Sentinel are different in several respects. The Star-Sentinel ad states: "Court Rosen was hand picked by Nelson Harris."

But The Roanoke Times ad poses it as a question: "Was Court Rosen hand picked by Nelson Harris?"

Mahone said the newspaper had concerns about the initial ad it received because some of its statements could not be substantiated. That led the sponsor to rephrase the sentence as a question.

As part of its policy, Mahone said, the newspaper insisted that a name run along with Citizens for Sensible Decisions.

"We strive for some transparency so the readers can make their own decisions," Mahone said. The person who placed the $8,456 ad in the paper did so by telephone and computer, she said.

Although it's illegal for an unregistered political action committee to place such an ad, Cockrell said Monday she was researching the law and had not yet found a provision that forbids anyone from making up the name of an ad's sponsor.

But, she said, "That clearly goes against the grain of campaign finance law, which says that transparency is everything."

Harris noted that both Wishneff and one of his opponents, former Mayor David Bowers, have ties to Citizens for Sensible Decisions.

Bowers has received at least $500 from the group, according to campaign finance reports. He did not return a call to his home Monday night.

As for the ad's claim that Rosen is the "hand-picked" candidate of Harris, the mayor said:

"Let's be clear: I have totally supported Court, and he has totally supported me. We've been very upfront about that. But the bottom line is that Court Rosen is on the ballot because there was a primary in which about 1,500 voters participated. That's why he's on the ballot, and that's why he's in the race."