Defiant Sam Arora Meets With Catholic Conference, Receives Massive Applause // SOURCE: "He's Walking Around All Cocky"

UPDATE: A Maryland Juice reader provides a contrast with how another MoCo lawmaker's office handled the lobbying from marriage equality opponents: "Saw your post about Sam Arora -- my Delegate met with the catholics tonight as well (25 of them in a small, confined office!). When marriage equality came up and the group said it was wrong, my Delegate came back with another reason why it was a big accomplishment to vote in favor of it on Friday. And kept advocating for marriage equality for 10 minutes."

Boy this makes my blood boil. An anonymous source in Annapolis tells Maryland Juice that temporary Delegate Sam Arora appears to be defiant about lying his way into office. Last Friday, the dishonest lawmaker broke a campaign promise to support marriage equality -- and he never found the courage to tell his constituents why. But apparently he has time to meet with the Catholic Conference -- one of the groups leading the charge against marriage equality in Maryland. Their newly promoted archbishop has been trying to stoke anti-equality feelings in Maryland. Check out the online chat dialogue below:

Aide: Sam Arora. Jeez. The Catholic Conference was in his office and he was giving some speech to them.

Juice: Did you hear any of it?

Aide:  No. Just the multiple rounds of loud applause. He's walking around all cocky. He doesn't care.

SAM ARORA GOES VIRAL: Unfortunately for Sam Arora, his donors and colleagues care. In fact, in just two days, Maryland Juice's round-up of attempts to defeat Sam Arora has become our second most popular series of all-time. The story of Montgomery County's notorious backstabber has gone viral, making it a more popular story than Delegate Nic Kipke's hypocritical affair and even more popular than the release of Maryland's new Congressional districts. In fact, based on readership rates, only the issue of censorship pisses off Maryland Juice readers more than Sam Arora's backstabbing.

WTOP radio recently covered the story, and included the following comments from some of Sam Arora's Montgomery county colleagues:

WTOP: Arora's was the lone "no" vote in the Montgomery County delegation. Senator Jamie Raskin says Arora's vote will certainly create political difficulties for the young lawmaker, especially because Arora campaigned as a progressive, offered to co-sponsor a bill on same-sex marriage, and then backed away from that position....
"...if you don't think he's going to have some serious challengers in the next election, you're too innocent to be let out of the house by yourself," he says.

Fellow Montgomery County Delegate Heather Mizeur, one of seven gay members of the Maryland House, says she has not heard from Arora since his vote....

Delegate Anne Kaiser, another gay member of the House of Delegates, says Arora's flip-flop on the issue greatly damages his credibility.

"The one lesson they taught us in Annapolis when you first take office is the one thing that you have is your word," she says.

WTOP has contacted Arora's office. He did not immediately respond.

National progressive blog Daily Kos also picked up the Sam Arora story. Their lengthy piece provides a timeline of his betrayal, but they remain just as puzzled as everyone else:

DAILYKOS: Arora has thus far made no explanation to the press, and his website has no news since Feb 13. Like any good, young politician, he has typically been very chatty on social media networks. But since the vote, there has been only silence. His Twitter account hasn't chirped since Feb. 13 and Facebook shows no signs of life since Feb. 14 (aside from the furious but futile attempt to delete angry messages from his Facebook wall). The statement in March is perhaps the only direct public communication Del. Arora has had with constituents on this issue. The story is big, and a man with Arora's politic pedigree should recognize hiding under his desk will not make it go away....

If he had religious objections, were they new? Has he experienced an epiphany since campaigning on this promise? Since co-sponsoring the bill in 2011?....

Whatever explains Sam Arora's strange flip-flop, I certainly hope it was worth it to him. It appears he bought himself a world of hurt with his betrayal.

SAM ARORA IS BIG NEWS // ADVERTISE ON MARYLANDJUICE.COM

EBAY AUCTION IS LIVE: If there is ANY upshot to Sam Arora being incredibly dense, it is that he is bringing thousands of readers to Maryland Juice! You know what that means? This is a great time to advertise. We are Ebay auctioning prime web space for 10 days during the following period: March 14-23. The auction is live NOW and the starting bid is a measly $1. But act fast, the auction ends this Wednesday.  

Meanwhile, readership is surging -- we've had over 40,000 hits in the last 30 days!