Keller @ Large: WBZ-TV-UMass Exit Poll Shows Different Look At Gender Gap

(BOSTON) – In Massachusetts, a central focus of the 2014 election was the gender gap.

Would women rally behind Martha Coakley's bid to become the state's first elected female governor? Would abortion rights issues be a factor?

Would Charlie Baker's offhand reference to a female reporter as "sweetheart" hurt his chances?

But data released Tuesday by the WBZ-TV-UMass Amherst exit poll suggests we might have been focusing on the wrong gender gap.

Read: WBZ-TV-UMass poll results (toplines)

According to the survey of 825 voters as they left the polls last Tuesday, Coakley won women by 11 points, 53-to-42-percent, a relatively modest margin by historical standards.

But Baker beat Coakley among men by 17 points, 56-to-39-percent.

Men also drove the decisive victory of the ballot question repealing the state law tying automatic increases in the state gas tax to the cost of living, with 57-percent of men voting "yes" compared with just 45-percent of women.

And when given a menu of six issues and asked how important they were to their decision, voters ranked abortion dead last, with only 51-percent deeming it "very important" and 21-precent saying it was "not very important."

Read: WBZ-TV-UMass poll results (crosstabs)

That may have hurt Coakley, who was seen as supportive of a woman's right to choose an abortion by 79-percent of voters, compared with just 54-percent who thought of Baker that way.

Equal pay for women fared better, with 63-precent citing it as "very important," but that issue still lagged behind health care, education, and the issues deemed most important by voters, the economy.

Another intriguing exit poll nugget: the widest margin within a particular age group for either candidate was Baker's 52-to-37-percent spread among voters ages 18-to-29.

The WBZ-TV-UMass Amherst exit poll had a margin of error of 4.3-percent.

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

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