Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Sam Arora Breaks His Silence, Moves On to Other Issues // State Senator Roger Manno "Disappointed," No Decisions on Slate

WJLA/ABC7 might be the only news outlet that has managed to get a response from temporary Maryland lawmaker Sam Arora. He refused to respond to previous media requests from WTOP at the time of his "no" vote on marriage equality. Last night WJLA printed an email response from Montgomery County's backstabber:
Montgomery County Democrat Sam Arora seems to be getting the brunt of the backlash. Arora, who campaigned in 2010 in support of same sex marriage and co-sponsored last years bill, voted No this year, even after repeatedly being lobbied by Gov. Martin O'Malley and former President Bill Clinton.
Because of that vote, Arora's legislative director immediately resigned and the delegate's Facebook wall has been peppered with dozens of angry messages, calling Arora a coward and his vote a betrayal.

There's even an online petition demanding Arora resign or refund campaign dollars....

Despite repeated requests for an on-camera interview, Arora said he was too busy but he did respond via email:

"This has been an emotional debate and I understand that there re those who disagree with my vote. Now that the bill has passed, I've turned my focus to my efforts [on other issues] in Maryland."

But former Arora supporters don't seem ready to turn their focus away and are promising to end the delegate's political career because of his vote.

Gee thanks, Sam! We're really glad you're through dealing with marriage equality, so that you could return to the more pressing problem of laserpointers! Several Internet users have pointed out that last Monday -- in the heat of the marriage equality lobbying --Delegate Arora had a completely different priority. Look at his last public Tweet on the eve of the historic vote:



Meanwhile, State Senator Roger Manno is condemning Arora's betrayal, but has not yet discussed slating with Sam with his District 19 colleagues. WNAV 1430 reports:
State Senator Roger Manno, who represents the same district as Arora, said "respectfully and with deep humility for all cultures, lifestyles and religions" that he was disappointed with Arora's vote against same-sex marriage. "In my heart, this is an important and timely issue of emancipation for loving families and couples of the same sex," Manno said.

Some angry with the vote from Friday are lobbying colleagues of Arora in District 19 to not slate with him when re-election takes place. Manno says that they didn't slate during his campaign in 2010. "Our delegation has not met to have any conversations about what we may or may not do in 2014."

We shall see where this goes. There are more dynamics at play than simply the Arora betrayal in District 19, but Maryland Juice will discuss those soon enough -- at the request of some readers who have made comments about this whole matter in some of our blog posts.

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