The identity of Joe Smith -- the false name behind an attack ad that rattled the Roanoke City Council race in its final days -- is no longer a mystery: Joe Smith was really Brian Wishneff.

Wishneff, who lost a bid for re-election Tuesday, revealed just 45 minutes before the polls closed that he made up the name of the person who reportedly paid for the full-page ad that ran for three days in The Roanoke Times.

In hindsight, Wishneff admitted that he should have put his own name on an ad that took shots at one of his opponents, Court Rosen. But Wishneff said it was a sales representative with the newspaper who gave him the idea to use an alias.

"He said, 'I don't care if you make up a name,' " Wishneff said. "I said, 'OK, then how about Joe Smith?'"

A spokeswoman for The Roanoke Times denied that account. "We did not in any way encourage Brian Wishneff or anyone else to falsify a name," said Nan Mahone.

To do that, she said, "would really defeat our purpose. Our purpose is to make the readers more aware [of who placed an ad] and give them more opportunities to make up their own minds."

She declined to provide any additional details about the incident.

Sponsored by Citizens for Sensible Decisions, a political action committee that Wishneff was working with, the ad questioned the credentials of Rosen, a political newcomer who was elected to the council Tuesday -- edging Wishneff out of his job by getting the third most votes for one of three seats.

Even by Wishneff's account, the ad attacking Rosen appears to violate state laws that govern political advertisements.

According to the 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 -- who identified Rosen as his key opponent during his campaign -- said he worked with Citizens for Sensible Decisions on the ad's content. "I had my share of editing comments," he said.

At the time, he said, he didn't know the law required his name to appear on an ad that carried a message from which he benefited.

He blamed the newspaper for not telling him of the law's requirement. "If someone had called me and said that to me, I would have said 'fine.' " Instead, he said, the newspaper told him that a name was required as part of its own policy.

However, the Virginia State Board of Elections does not accept ignorance of the law as an excuse, said Barbara Cockrell, director of operations for the agency. The board takes pains to educate elected officials of the rules regarding ads, she said.

"In my mind, it doesn't pass the smell test," Cockrell said of Wishneff's involvement.

Because the State Board of Elections does not actually enforce laws, Cockrell said it would be up to the Roanoke commonwealth's attorney to decide whether to prosecute anyone for an offense that would most likely carry civil fines.

Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell said Monday that his office would look into the matter if it receives an official complaint. As of Tuesday afternoon, none had been made.

The way Wishneff tells it, the ad was first placed in The Roanoke Times by Suzanne Osborne, who is associated with Citizens for Sensible Decisions. When questions came up about its content, the newspaper sales representative -- who Wishneff declined to name -- called him after he could not reach Osborne.

The sales representative explained that it was the newspaper's policy that the ad must state the name of a person who paid for it, in addition to the name of the political action committee.

Wishneff said he disagreed with that requirement, and for a while they argued the point back and forth. When he eventually offered the fake name, which he said came at the sales representative's suggestion, he said it was a way to resolve the dispute.

"It wasn't that we were trying to hide anything," he said. "It was out of frustration with that conversation."

And even though it carried a false name, Wishneff said he thought the ad was a good one.

"I'm proud of the ad because I think it's accurate," he said.

A similar ad ran in The Roanoke Star-Sentinel but did not include the name of Joe Smith and was not identified as a paid political advertisement, as required by law. Stuart Revercomb, publisher of the Star-Sentinel, said the second omission was an oversight.

Both ads began with a question: "Who is Court Rosen?" They went on to say that Rosen said "I do not know" when asked his opinion on a significant issue in the city. They did not identify the issue.

Rosen was described as "an inexperienced 29-year-old with zero community involvement and no track record" who was "hand picked" by incumbent Mayor Nelson Harris, who lost his bid for re-election Tuesday.

Rosen declined to comment Tuesday. "I think it speaks for itself," he said of the ad.

The Roanoke Times ad -- which included a line at the bottom stating: "Paid for by Joe Smith, Citizens for Sensible Decisions" -- had more problems than just a fictitious underwriter who turned out to be a candidate with an ax to grind.

Citizens for Sensible Decisions is not registered as a political action committee with the State Board of Elections and as a result should not have placed the ad, Cockrell said.

Winfred Noell, an organizer of the local political group, said it must now decide whether to disband or register with the state.

"We didn't mean for it to be screwed up like it is and cause this confusion," he said.

In recent years, the General Assembly has passed laws that put more restrictions on last-minute attack ads like the one orchestrated against Rosen, according to Frosty Landon, former executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government.

"Generally, the legislature has made it clear that it thinks last-minute attack ads are dirty politics, and the rules ought to be refined so there is full disclosure of who's doing the attacking," said Landon, a former editor of The Roanoke Times.

"If somebody in Roanoke, be it Joe Smith or someone else, has found a way around the law, I would bet you anything that the legislature will address that in future sessions."

Before Wishneff revealed that he was the mysterious Joe Smith, advertising officials at The Roanoke Times had declined to say who purchased the ad from the newspaper.

Mahone said that information is routinely not released to protect the privacy of customers.

But former Del. Chip Woodrum of Roanoke -- who was upset enough about the ad to complain to the State Board of Elections -- said he found it disappointing that the newspaper would choose to withhold information.

"It would ill behoove The Roanoke Times to cloak itself in some opaque robe of secrecy," Woodrum said, "and refuse to do what it has demanded others to do."