The Rebel Reformers had a candidate of their own to rally around in the form of former two-time "Natural Law" Party Presidential candidate and Harvard-trained physicist John Hagelin. According to them, Hagelin posed a serious threat to Buchanan's nomination to head the Reform ticket, which caused the Buchananites to panic...

In order to secure the nomination, Pat's followers began a campaign of alleged "dirty tricks" to block any chance of Hagelin securing the nomination. This included the "disqualification" of any and all convention delegates who DIDN'T support Buchanan, which is what lead to a big Brouhaha at the start of the convention.