Ellis said had he been the one to come so close at convention, "I would have liked to have heard the same message go to my opponent just for the sake of avoiding a primary. I can see the party wanting to save money."

Ellis said he was introduced to Hansen by one of his closest advisers, former Lt. Gov. Val Oveson. Both Ellis and Hansen said they talked before the convention, in April, about whether Ellis should make his allegations against Walker public.

Ellis has said the offer from Walker came in March, but he had decided against making it public. That changed, Ellis said, when he was contacted about it by a newspaper in late May. At that point, Ellis filed an elections complaint with the lieutenant governor's office.

Walker has acknowledged saying he wanted Ellis and others in the treasurer's office to keep their jobs if he was elected to the state's top financial post but denies offering Ellis a pay raise or asking him to end his candidacy.

Hansen said the advice he gave Ellis was that it was too late to go public with the allegations.

"I told him no, that it was too close to the convention. That, bluntly, he should have said something before, it was two months later," Hansen said. "That Mark would deny making the offer, whether he really did make the offer or not, and that it would just not work."

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