As Democratic insiders speculate on who AG Andrew Cuomo will pick as his running mate, Bill Samuels is forging ahead with his LG run and keeping the heat on the Senate by calling for “immediate passage” of a bill to create an independent districting commission.

Samuels released a detailed proposal for taking the politics out of the redistricting politics last night at a forum where the topic was hotly debated by himself, attorney Richard Emery and NYC Civic founder Henry Stern, who also co-founded the reform group New York Uprising with former NYC Mayor Ed Koch.

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The event also featured a screening of the film “Gerrymandering,” which recently debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival and includes an appearance by Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries.

Samuels’ ultimate goal is a constitutional amendment that would make redistricting reform permanent and not subject to the whims of the Legislature, which could amend at will any statute passed to change the system.

Emery agreed, calling the commission bill, sponsored by Sens. Dave Valesky and Craig Johnson “a promise that cannot deliver.”

Getting the Legislature to pass a bill curtailing their own line-drawing power and leaving their respective fates in the hands of an independent commission will be hard enough. A constitutional amendment, which requires passage by two separately elected Legislatures and then a public referendum, is near about impossible.

So Samuels is advocating for the Valesky/Johnson bill as a “major step forward,” adding: “There is simply no more room for excuses and there is no more time for delay.”

Samuels has raised a considerable amount of money for the Senate Democrats and used to serve as their finance chair, so he theoretically has more clout than your average good government advocate might – or, at the very least, can get lawmakers to take his calls.

But he has also launched a PAC, the New Roosevelt Initiative, with an eye toward targeting non-reform minded senators. Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr., who is in Cuomo’s crosshairs, but is being protected by Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson, is his first target.

Getting the Senate Democrats, whose president, Malcolm Smith, recently talked of redistricting the Republicans “into oblivion,” to act this year – even as outside pressure builds and anti-incumbent sentiment is unusually high – will still be a tall order.

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