The New Jersey state Senate voted today to approve the nomination of Brick Mayor John Ducey to the state Superior Court, just two months after Governor Phil Murphy first nominated him.

The vote was 38-0.

With his confirmation now official, Ducey will resign his position as Mayor later this afternoon, as he noted during his committee hearing last week.

Ducey, who is also an attorney, has served as the mayor of Brick Township since 2014 following a two-year stint on the township council.

With his resignation creating a vacancy, the Democratic municipal committee will now submit three names to the Brick Township Council, which will choose a mayor from among those three options.

That person will then have to participate in a special election for the remaining two years of the term, with the primary and general elections held alongside this year’s regularly scheduled elections.

Ducey had been a rare Democrat in Ocean County to hold a public office and Republicans are eager to finally win back the seat which was held by the popular Democrat for nearly a decade.

Republican Assemblyman John Catalano, whose 9th district includes Brick, already announced that will not seek re-election to a third term in the Assembly and instead will seek the Republican nomination for the state’s 13th-largest municipality.

In 2021, Republican gubernatorial candidate John Ciattarelli won Brick by nearly 40 points.