Bill Samuels (political activist)

William Christie Samuels is a political activist and businessman who resided in New York and now lives in Rhode Island. He was the founder of the good government group EffectiveNY and is currently the chairman of the board of the Howard Samuels Policy Center. He was awarded the 2011 Common Cause Award for outstanding commitment to government and as an innovating political thinker and the 2017 Center for Popular Democracy Social Justice Award. Samuels was Chairman and CEO of ACTV, Inc. He was instrumental in getting the inclusive New York State Equal Rights Amendment onto the ballot in 2024.

Early life and background
Samuels was raised upstate in Canandaigua, New York, the son of Howard and Barbara Samuels. His father Howard J. Samuels served as U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce under President Lyndon B. Johnson, was Director of the Small Business Administration and founded Kordite, which made Baggies and Hefty. The company was sold to Mobil Oil in 1958. In 1974, his father ran for Governor with Mario Cuomo as his Lieutenant Governor ultimately losing to Hugh Carey.

Samuels attended MIT where he earned undergraduate degrees in political science, economics, and engineering. He later graduated from Harvard Law School.

After law school he started an education company, APC Skills, dedicated to training entry level workers who lacked the skills to get and keep a job, which was a priority of President Johnson's War on Poverty. In 1987 the company merged with the Alexander Proudfoot company which had offices in the U.S., Europe, Brazil and Mexico. In 1988, it became a publicly traded company on the London exchange (symbol MMC).

Samuels was a pioneer in the introduction of interactive television. He built ACTV, as a start up, with the Washington Post as a major investor. In 1990 it went public on NASDAQ (symbol IATV). In 2002, the company was sold to Liberty Media.

Council of Economic Priorities
In 1969, right out of law school, Samuels was one of the founders of the non-profit The Council of Economic Priorities (CEP). The Council produced research on major public companies’ records on the environment, women and minority advancement, tobacco support, South Africa involvement, and other social issues. It was an early predecessor of today’s Environmental, and Social  and Governance ( ESG) efforts.

John Kerry
Samuels raised money and supported John Kerry’s Vietnam Veterans Against the War March on Washington on April 23,1971. This is where Kerry made the famous statement “how do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam?”

In 2004, Samuels produced and financed George Butler's “Going Upriver, The Long War of John Kerry,” which was released during Kerry’s Presidential campaign and countered the Republican Swift Boat attacks.

Civil Rights, Gramercy Park
In January 2001, a group of largely minority school children were legally invited to Gramercy Park, the only private park in Manhattan. The students were from the near-by Washington Irving High School and belonged to a biology class that planned to examine plants and wildlife in the park. The Gramercy Park Trust has sovereignty over the park and one of the trustees ordered the student to leave and called the police.

Samuels, who lived nearby, was “was disturbed enough” that he hired a major law firm and  financed a civil rights lawsuit. The suit alleged teachers and students heard the trustee say “the park is not for these kinds of kids” The students won $40,000 each.

Democratic Party Civic Engagement and Blue Tiger
Samuels founded the Blue Tiger Democrats in 2004. The tiger was the symbol of the famous 911 fire engine brigade and became the symbol of the New York Democrats in the late 19th century.

Blue Tiger believes that the Democratic Party needs to build into its regular voter activities, civic engagement projects such as senior computer training, VA Hospital support for the veterans, food drives, or roadway clear-ups.

In addition to Blue Tiger’s New York State activity, Samuels met with Michigan Governor Granholn and she brought the Blue Tiger party to Michigan. The Blue Tiger program was adopted across the state. The program is still active today. For example, in 2022 the Manistee Democratic Party set up a Blue Tiger scholarship program.

Governor Cuomo
As a result of his father running with Mario Cuomo as his Lieutenant Governor in 1974, Samuels knew Andrew Cuomo well. When Cuomo was elected Governor in 2010, Samuels became an outspoken critic, both in the press and on television. He said "When history is written, he'll just be a mediocre governor that had a Nixon personality."

Samuels even threatened to run to be his Lieutenant Governor in 2010 and 2014, not as an ally of Cuomo but as a check.

Corruption in the New York State Democratic Party
In 2010 Samuels grew concerned about corruption in the State Senate Democratic Party. Particularly with the Democratic Majority Leader, Pedro Espada.

Samuels opened offices in Espada's district and funded a major campaign to oust him. Espada was defeated and later sent to prison for five years for stealing from a non-profit.

Constitutional change
Samuels was a leader and the biggest financial supporter of the required New York State 2017 vote that asked the question: Shall there be a convention to revise the Constitution and amend the same. He organized the Citizens Committee for an Effective Constitution, whose goal was to reform and update the New York State Constitution. He traveled the state with Brian Kolb, the Republican Assembly Minority leader, urging voters to approve the convention.

Voters rejected the convention and Samuels said: “the measures’ defeat is a triumph for all of the enemies of reform in Albany.”

He pursued one of his main suggestions: The need for an inclusive Equal Right Amendment. In 2017 he and State Senator Liz Kruger held a press briefing and submitted to the State Senate a constitutional amendment that not only covered women, but many other categories such as race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, or sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression. Later the legislature added reproductive healthcare and autonomy.

The legislature approved it in January, 2023 and it is on the ballot in November, 2024 for approval by the voters. The measure places New York at the forefront of legal efforts to protect reproductive rights for women after the Supreme Court voted down Roe V Wade.

Retirement Security
About one and half million private sector employees in New York City have no access to a retirement saving program unlike employees of large corporations. In response to this, Samuels designed a program called “ Retirement Security for All” and introduced it to the New York City Council. He said in a September 9, 2019 press conference with Mayor De Blasio, “EffectiveNY is enormously gratified and pleased to see this tremendous  progress towards providing all New Yorkers the means to retire with dignity.”

It was signed into law on May 11, 2021, making it the first city in the nation to create a universal retirement program through their employers.

21 in 21
In 2017, Samuels founded "21 in '21". At that time there were only 5 women set to remain in the 2019 NYC City Council, which had 51 members. The goal was to have 21 women on the Council by 2021. In 2021, 31 women were elected or 61% of the members.

Personal life
Samuels served 6 years in the U.S. Army’s  Judge Advocate Jag Corps. He is married to Marie Dunn Samuels and they have a daughter Kitty Samuels. He and Marie currently live in Newport, Rhode Island.