The image late in the day Monday of U.S. Rep. Albio Sires (D-8) hustling through the streets of the Jersey City Heights with Mayor Jerry Healy created the inevitable aftermath question about payback.

And the question: Will Jersey City Mayor-elect Steve Fulop run a candidate against the sitting congressman next year?

“There will be time for politics down the road,” said Fulop spokesman Bruno Tedeschi. “Right now, Steve is focused on the transition and setting up his administration.”

He was also taking calls from friends and foes trying to be friends, Sires among them, who had what one source called a “gracious” conversation with the mayor-elect.

TRENTON – At least seven bills that have primarily Republican sponsors were pulled from committee hearings next Monday due to an ongoing battle between Senate President Steve Sweeney and GOP Senate leader Thomas Kean Jr.

The bills address a variety of issues, including property valuations when dunes are constructed, converting some fines into tax liens, and allowing delivery of property tax bills and some other official correspondence via email.

Senate President Steve Sweeney has slashed all GOP-introduced bills from next Monday's committee agendas in retaliation for what he and others in the upper chamber say was a cheap political maneuver by Sen. Tom Kean Jr.

According to three sources familiar with Sweeney's actions, the Senate president's move is payback for Kean's blocking of a procedural maneuver on the Senate floor Monday that would have allowed a vote on Sweeney's bill strengthening background checks for gun purchasers.

Instead, the bill won't be voted on until the Senate's next voting session on May 30.