Ex-Murphy counsel drops bid for judgeship

After waiting more than a year for Senate confirmation, former Spring Lake Councilwoman Janice Venables has decided not to become an Administrative Law Judge.

Instead, she has taken a post as vice president for corporate governance at the New Jersey School Development Authority.

Gov. Phil Murphy nominated Venables to the judgeship in December 2022.  She served as a deputy attorney general from 2017 until 2021, when she joined Murphy’s staff as an associate counsel.

Venables was a councilwoman from 2000 to 2017, and a Democratic candidate for Monmouth County Freeholder in 2010.  She was among a group of local Democrats from Spring Lake that endorsed Republican Gov. Chris Christie for re-election.

Murphy also withdrew the nominations of Assemblywoman-elect Alixon Collazos Gill (D-Montclair) as a commissioner of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority and Michael Delamater as a commissioner of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority on Monday.

As an incoming legislator, Gill would no longer be eligible to serve on a state authority.

Murphy is expected to renominate Delamater to a different board.