ALBANY — The upstate judge who called state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver “a slug” in a Post story last year was censured yesterday for pushing too hard for a pay hike.

The state Commission on Judicial Conduct ruled that Cattaraugus County Judge Larry Himelein’s barefaced lobbying for a raise crossed the line. The panel stopped short of recommending his removal from the bench.

In an April 27, 2008, story Himelein, a Democrat, bragged that he’d refused to hear cases involving Weitz & Luxenberg, Silver’s Manhattan law firm, adding, “I think the speaker is a slug.”