In 1884, the Prohibition party ran its most well-known candidate ever, John St. John, the former governor of Kansas. Republican operatives tried to convince St. John to drop out of the race. When he refused, they engaged in a smear campaign against him, accusing him of wife abuse and other dreadful deeds. In retaliation, a furious St. John concentrated his efforts in upstate New York, an area of the key electoral state where Blaine was vulnerable on the prohibition issue. The Democratic party secretly funded the Prohibition party's campaign there. In the end, the Prohibition vote in New York proved to be one of the leading factors in Blaine's electoral defeat by Democrat Grover Cleveland. This Harper's Weekly cover conveys the dilemma facing Blaine: whether he can satisfy both sides on the Prohibition question. Blaine's peddler's bag advertises the message "20 Years a Tee-Totaler" (i.e., non-drinker of alcohol), but it is qualified by the underlined phrase "in Maine." When it comes to drinking water from the well, the candidate proves unfit for the task.