"In order to beat Dan McCready, as strong a candidate as Dan McCready was, the general-election campaign needed to start right away," said a person familiar with the thinking in Pittenger's campaign and spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. "There wasn't time to go into a recount and use those financial resources. All the campaigns were financially strapped. The only way to beat Dan McCready was to put our weapons down within the party. Robert, being a good Republican, agreed that if he continued to try to raise an issue with this, it would only hurt the Republicans' abilities to win in the fall."