Cannabis Executive Elizabeth Stavola contributed more than $35,000 to Gov. Phil Murphy and the New Jersey Democratic State Committee in the months before receiving conditional approval from the Department of Health to open a medical marijuana dispensary in Atlantic City.
Stavola, a New Jersey resident and chief operating officer of the publicly-traded Canadian cannabis company MPX Bioceutical, contributed $4,300 to Murphy’s campaign committee on Oct. 10, 2017, according to filings with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.
Two days prior to that, she cut a separate check for $6,000 to the Democratic State Committee, whose chairman is Murphy ally John Currie. At the time, the committee was making a final push to secure the governorship for Murphy and solidify Democratic majorities in both chambers of the state Legislature.
Following Murphy’s victory in November 2017, Stavola made three more donations totaling $25,000 to the party committee in 2018, along with a separate $500 contribution for the inauguration, according to ELEC filings. Stavola, whose listed address in Red Bank is just two miles up the Navesink River from Murphy’s Middletown estate, later attended a political fundraiser at Murphy’s home on Aug. 15, according to the New Jersey Globe.
One donation, for $10,000, arrived in the New Jersey Democratic State Committee’s coffers on July 25, 2018, a little more than a week after the administration announced it would issue permits for six new medical marijuana dispensaries, effectively doubling the size of the state’s legal cannabis market.