KEARNY – The question really isn’t whether Steve Sweeney wants to stay in politics – it’s what he’s going to do.

Run for Congress next year against Jeff Van Drew?

Run for governor in 2025? Seek to reclaim his Senate seat in 2025?

His path is uncertain, but it’s clear every time he speaks publicly, Sweeney doesn’t want to leave the stage.

As he put it this morning, he lost an election, he didn’t die. (More about dying later).

“I will be back, probably sooner than you think,” he said at a ceremony renaming the atrium of a state reentry training and employment center in his honor.

As Jeannine LaRue, a longtime New Jersey lobbyist and public activist, put it, “There is a whole lot left (for) Steve Sweeney.”

What is now the Sweeney atrium is part of a 25,000 square-foot center that trains formerly incarcerated individuals for a productive life on the outside. The job training includes a variety of trades, among them warehouse skills, solar panel installation and general construction work.

Beyond the specific disciplines, the key here is giving people a “second chance.”

So it seems especially appropriate that an instrumental figure in the state’s program is Jim McGreevey, who hosted the ceremonies and who joked that his departure from the governor’s office in 2004 was a bit “inglorious.” McGreevey said it was then-Governor Chris Christie who urged him to get involved with the reentry program.

Christie, who long has been a big supporter of helping people reclaim their lives, was on hand, as were a figurative cast of thousands, many of whom seemed to speak.

The focus was twofold – the program and Sweeney, who championed many of the initiatives being celebrated.

But as is the case with politicians, praise for the just-defeated Senate President dominated the oratory.

State Sen. Sandra Cunningham said Sweeney was a man who “knows how to lead” and who brings people together.

Assemblywoman Eliana Pintor Marin recalled that when she was newly-elected – a “nobody” in political speak – Sweeney sought her out and said he was proud of her.

Today, Pintor Marin said she was proud of Sweeney.

Republican Sen. Kip Bateman said that he and Sweeney had some disagreements along the way, but that in the end everything was smoothed over.

“If he shakes your hand, take it to the bank,” Bateman said.

When it came his turn to speak, Christie couldn’t resist a joke.

Reflecting on the lavish praise heaped on Sweeney, Christie said, “I looked down to see if he was still alive.”

It did sound like an eulogy.

After a few laughs from an audience of at least 200, Christie said that he, too, expects to see Sweeney active again in politics.

But in what capacity?

Sweeney ignored mentioning any specific plans, but said the reentry program is, “what government is supposed to be about. It really is.”

You got the impression that the allure of political power aside, programs like that still drive the Senate President.

He said he’s not going away quietly, because I have “a lot of great things to do.”