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Christine Quinn could have been the first woman (not to mention the first lesbian) mayor of New York City, but she wasn't able to make it happen. Exit polls show that in the Democratic primary on Tuesday, she didn't carry the gay vote, Bill de Blasio did. She only got 16 percent of the women's vote, finishing behind de Blasio and Thompson. But Kate Taylor and Jodi Kantor at The New York Times are still asking "questions" about the "role of gender and sexuality" in Quinn's loss. Our answer: the numbers show that Quinn didn't lose because of sexism.
The Times admits that there are a lot of reasons why Quinn didn't best de Blasio, but then they go on to provide anecdotes of voters talking about Quinn's clothes, anyway:
Critiques of Ms. Quinn’s physical attributes came from many corners, even the wealthy Upper East Side women who helped raise money for her mayoral bid. “Why can’t she dress better?’” they would ask Rachel Lavine, a Democratic state committeewoman who was on Ms. Quinn’s finance committee . . . "Why isn’t she wearing a size two St. John’s dress?"
Lavine noted, “You don’t hear that about de Blasio — ‘Why can’t he buy better-looking suits?’ ”