Tuesday's print column

It would have been satisfying — or at least a minor consolation for a stinging defeat — had Democratic state Rep. Greg Harris of Chicago called for a vote Friday night in Springfield on his bill to legalize same-sex marriage.

Satisfying in that it would have created a record for all time of those members of the House standing against the tide of history. Satisfying in that it would have generated a list of lawmakers for advocates to target with petitions, phone calls, faxes, emails, protests and even potential challengers aimed at getting them to change their vote.

Satisfying but stupid.

Harris didn't have the votes. After more than three months of working the roll call, lining up support, counting noses and doing everything diligent legislators do to try to get their bills across the finish line, Harris said he knew, by midafternoon Friday, the final day of the session for the General Assembly, that his efforts had fallen short.

How short? He isn't saying. "I never talk about who and how many," said Harris in an interview Monday. "On Friday morning I was very hopeful," he said. "But throughout the day I had members coming up to me individually and in small groups saying they needed more time. They told me they want to go back to their districts and talk to their constituents to clear up misunderstandings about what the bill does and doesn't do" regarding the protection of religious freedom.

And it's Politics 101 not to call your bill when you don't have the votes to pass it. Why? Because you're likely to push the fence-sitters and not-quite-persuadeds into a "no" vote that will be difficult for them to reverse should their minds ever change. Better to leave them undecided than to try to persuade them later to become flip-floppers.

And, when it's an emotional, controversial issue such as gay marriage, calling for a vote risks saddling supporters with feckless "yes" votes that can be used against them when they run for re-election.

The reality is that a "yes" vote for a bill that fails is far more politically dangerous than a "yes" vote for a bill that passes.

For example, there was speculation that votes in late 2010 and early 2011 to approve same-sex civil unions and to abolish the death penalty in Illinois would come back to haunt legislators who represented more conservative districts. But once Gov. Pat Quinn signed both into law, the issues largely dropped off the radar and were not factors in the 2012 state election cycle.

And another reality is that when a bill that goes down to defeat — particularly the solid 10- to 20-vote loss predicted for gay marriage — it acquires a stink of failure and futility that makes it harder to revive down the line.

Facing these realities, Harris made the smart, even savvy decision not to call for a vote Friday. He not only sidestepped the quick-drying cement of a disadvantageous roll call, but he also preserved the bill for possible approval later this year, by which time the U.S. Supreme Court stands to have handed down rulings signaling support for gay marriage.

For this bit of gamesmanship, Harris, who is gay, suffered harsh criticism from advocates within his own community, some of whom were in the viewing gallery Friday and many of whom wanted to force opponents onto the record.