 Bruning and Stenberg attacked one another aggressively throughout the campaign.Shortly before the election, the political action committee Ending Spending, financed by Omaha businessman Joe Ricketts, ran a television ad attacking Bruning for buying a lake house together with two executives of Lincoln student-loan firm Nelnet less than a year after Bruning, in his capacity as attorney general, had sought to waive a $1 million penalty against the company.In the primary election, voters delivered an unexpected victory to dark-horse candidate Deb Fischer, who won 41% of the vote to Bruning's 36% and Stenberg's 19%.