The Roanoke councilman who made up the name listed as the sponsor of a campaign ad attacking his opponent said Thursday he plans to sue The Roanoke Times over its coverage of the controversy.

Brian Wishneff accused the newspaper of "trying to influence the election and trying to maim my character."

Two days after he was voted out of office, Wishneff held a news conference to complain that the newspaper rushed into print an Election Day story about ads that had run over the weekend questioning the credentials of his opponent, Court Rosen.

The article quoted an organizer of Citizens for Sensible Decisions, a political action committee linked to Wishneff, saying that someone with the group gave the newspaper's advertising department the false name of Joe Smith as the person who paid for the message.

"That's a made-up name just because the newspaper said you had to have a name on it," Winfred Noell said.

He also raised the possibility that Wishneff was involved with the ad.

Wishneff said the article did not include comments from him or others involved in the matter. "To me, it's Journalism 101 that you get both of the parties involved to verify" information before publishing a story, Wishneff said.

The newspaper left three messages at Wishneff's business and on his cellphone the day before the story ran. Wishneff said he didn't return those calls because he was too busy campaigning.

Although the newspaper was unable to confirm just who made up the name for its first story, Wishneff admitted the next day that it was him. He came up with the Joe Smith alias not to mislead the public, he said, but out of frustration during an argument with an advertising sales representative over whether a name was required with the full-page ad, which ran for three days in The Roanoke Times.

Wishneff said the sales representative finally told him it would be OK for him to make up a name -- an accusation the newspaper has denied.

As he concluded his news conference, Wishneff said he was headed to a meeting with his lawyers to discuss a possible lawsuit against the paper, which he said has pursued negative stories about him and ignored those that would have helped his campaign.

Wishneff had accused the city manager and other city officials of trying to influence the outcome of the election by hastening the contract for an amphitheater site plan. The Roanoke Times reported on his accusations on April 16. He offered what he considered to be new proof of his allegation last week. The newspaper investigated his claims but didn't find enough facts to support the allegation.

"It is not the policy of The Roanoke Times to publicly respond to threats of litigation," newspaper spokeswoman Nan Mahone said when asked about his statement.

The Roanoke commonwealth's attorney's office is reviewing the ad to see if it violated any laws -- a topic that Wishneff said he was not prepared to address in detail Thursday.

Officials with the Virginia State Board of Elections have said Citizens for Sensible Decisions was not a registered political action committee, as the law required it to be before running the ad.

Also, they said, Wishneff's name should have appeared on the attack ad because he benefited from its message and because he worked with the political committee that sponsored it.

Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell said he expects his office will ask state police to investigate the case. Because he was active in the election, Caldwell said he would prefer to have a different prosecutor handle it.

With the complex nature of election law, "people should expect that this will take months and months if not years," Caldwell said.

Staff writer Mike Allen contributed to this report.