Gay Democratic voters in New York and California support Hillary

For the first time this primary season exit polls tracked the sexual orientation of Democrats who voted in two states – New York and California.

Here in New York, seven percent of Democrats identified themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual. They went for Hillary Clinton in a big way. She received 59% of the vote. Obama got 36% and Edwards 3%.

In California, four percent of Democrats identified themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual and Clinton’s margin was even larger. She took 60% of the vote while Obama grabbed 25% and Edwards 5%.

These exit poll numbers are not too different from the results of Hunter College poll conducted last November among likely LGB voters, although Obama did pick up some ground yesterday. The Hunter poll showed Clinton getting 63% of the national LGB vote to Obama’s 22% and Edwards 7%.

We’re glad the National Election Pool (a consortium formed by NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox and the AP) that conducts the exit polls decided we existed yesterday, at least here in New York and in California.

However, I have a news flash for the National Election Pool. We don’t just cling to the two coasts in these two states. We’re pretty much everywhere so it would have been good to have the same question asked in every state’s exit poll this primary season and with both Democrats and Republicans.