During his first-ever Q&A with reporters as a full-fledged gubernatorial candidate, AG Andrew Cuomo declined to say if he supports Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver continuing in his leadership role.

After roundly castigating fellow Democrats and Republicans alike during his announcement speech yesterday and proposing a host of policy positions that seemed tailor-made to get under the speaker’s skin, Cuomo today dodged the question about Silver, (the longest-serving legislative leader in Albany), saying it’s not his place to determine who leads either house.

The members of the Assembly pick the speaker,” Cuomo told reporters at the Israel Day parade.

“It’s not my place to say who the speaker of the Assembly should be or the leader of the Senate should be or the minority leader. That’s not what I do. I respect the separation of powers.”

“I respect the executive. I respect the Legislature and I’ll leave it to the Legislature to pick their leaders.”

Cuomo followed this statement with a rather pragmatic answer regarding his so-called “citizens crusade” and how he plans to push through his agenda, saying:

It’s the people coming together around a set of ideas and positions, a specific reform agenda, and then getting that enacted in the New York State Legislature by the people’s representatives in the Assembly and the Senate.”

Cuomo also insisted that his fiscally conservative agenda, which has some on the left (particularly labor unions) very upset, was not specifically crafted to attract GOP voters. He rejected any “hyper-partisan effort to try to divide this state now by party lines” calling that “a mistake.”

You can watch all of Cuomo’s first (and up until this point, very rare) in-person campaign press conference here.

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