The last-ditch mailer dropped by Chris Giunchigliani and her husband, political consultant Gary Gray, claimed that County Commissioner Myrna Williams had been "investigated for corruption by the FBI."

Tough talk, but it simply wasn't true.

Desperate to win, Las Vegas' new power couple sent the mailer out so that it would arrive in mailboxes Saturday, too late for Williams to respond, tarring her, but also tarring themselves as a win-at-any-cost couple.

Yet the election results showed that Giunchigliani would have won without the despicable mailer. From the first results to the last, Giunchigliani held 50 percent of the vote to Williams' 37 percent, while the third Democrat in the primary, Priscilla Flores, held 13 percent.

Giunchigliani would have won without it, because she had already artfully portrayed Williams as someone who should have known that her fellow commissioners -- Erin Kenny, Dario Herrera, Mary Kincaid-Chauncey and Lance Malone, who actually were investigated by the FBI -- were corrupt. Following that logic, Commissioners Bruce Woodbury and Chip Maxfield also should have known of the rampant corruption among their fellow commissioners.

"How do you overcome being called a crook?" Williams asked me Tuesday after early results showed her trailing by 13 points in the County Commission District E seat.

You can't. Not when voters are bombarded with news accounts of county commissioners on the take, not when many people assume that every politician is corrupt.

There's no evidence that Williams was investigated by the FBI during the corruption probe. Yet impugning her honesty was the path Giunchigliani and Gray chose.

Of course, Williams had done much the same to Giunchigliani. "Oh no, another Dario" cried out one mailer critical of Giunchigliani for taking free tickets to the Rolling Stones concert. Williams hammered Giunchigliani for paying her husband to manage her campaigns and claimed she spent most of her time at their Mount Charleston home. Gray insisted his wife took eight hits before firing back.

Do Gray and his wife really believe the FBI investigated Williams? Gray said he was relying on a column in a local weekly. "I believe for a short while she was."

Williams doesn't think they really believe it, nor do I.

Gray is known for pushing the envelope in his mail pieces, but this time he crossed the line. This wasn't just stretching the truth. Williams says she's talking to an attorney about suing for libel, but the protections afforded political speech are so broad, she wouldn't be likely to win. That's the reason, of course, that mailers become more and more outrageous in their claims.

Mike Sullivan, Williams' campaign manager, said his mistake was to assume that voters knew of Williams' achievements.

Williams, who started her career as a social worker, worked to bring parks and community centers to the district during her 12 years as commissioner. As an assemblywoman for 10 years she was one of the leaders in the fair share fight, which changed the tax structure so that Southern Nevada got more of its tax money returned to Clark County instead of sending it to Northern Nevada. She fought Yucca Mountain. She worked hard to get higher child support payments written into the law.

"Myrna is what you would call an old-time liberal, whose only interest is to help people," said Frank Schreck, an attorney who is her longtime friend, fundraiser and adviser.

We'll see how Giunchigliani uses her new power. During her years in the Assembly, she was vocal, quotable and a fighter, but her power there was limited because she never chaired the most powerful committees.

Facing minimal opposition in November, she's guaranteed to join a group that many believe is more powerful than a governor. Now she's got power; let's see how she uses it.

And her husband's power is visibly enhanced. Gray also helped elect Clark County Commissioner Tom Collins, so he has easy access to two of the seven commissioners. He was the consultant for three of the five members of the Las Vegas City Council -- Steve Ross, Gary Reese and Steve Wolfson.

Giunchigliani will start her term in January as the commissioner who decided that winning by destroying another person's reputation was more important than playing straight. It's not a great way to start.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call 383-0275.