Gov. Andrew Cuomo insisted at a news conference that he continues to hold his position on having an independent commission redraw legislative boundaries and that the LATFOR commission will draw lines that are unduly political.

But he carefully avoided use of the “v” word: Veto.

Here is a key exchange from the news conference, which began with a question from Ken Lovett of The Daily News:

Cuomo: My position hasn’t changed, Ken. I want an independent commission to draw the lines. That’s my position. Now some people will say it’s impossible to have an independent commission. My position is I want an independent commission and I want a better product.

Ken Lovett: Are you saying you will veto, then without it?

Cuomo: That’s my position.

Essentially Cuomo wants to see what happens.

“We’ll let the process play out and we’ll see where it plays out,” he said.

Parse that how you will, but it will certainly be picked apart by everyone on both sides of this issue.

Good-government groups continue to hold out hope that the governor will veto the legislative boundaries drawn by the lawmaker-driven panel known as LATFOR. We expect the proposed redistricted map for state districts later this afternoon.

The Assembly plans to put its maps out right at 2 p.m., a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said.

The governor has said that he wouldn’t accept lines drawn by LATFOR and would veto anything not drawn by a independent panel. A veto would send the process to a judge to hash out the lines. Typically a judge would stick to what the Legislature has done, and Cuomo himself has said that a veto would cause “chaos.”

But Cuomo today seemed resigned to the notion that the proposal would go to the courts, anyway.

“I haven’t seen the lines, I don’t want to comment on the lines,” he said. “But it’s going to wind up in the courts one way or the other.”

Cuomo also admitted that the typical arm-twisting on lawmakers hasn’t worked so far. Last year, for example, he was able to get lawmakers to approve an overhaul of ethics laws by threatening to create a Moreland Commission to investigate the Legislature.

This time the governor does not possess such a hammer.

“There are different, strategies, different tactics,” he said. “If you think that I should go and convince the legislators it is their best interest to not draw their own lines, maybe you can convince them that. I don’t have those skills.”

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