UPDATE: Sam Arora Clarifies Explanation of Marriage Equality Flip-Flop // BTW: Arora Has Less Than $3,000 Cash on Hand

BACKGROUND: Maryland Juice recently published televised comments from Democratic lawmaker Sam Arora where he attempted to explain why he betrayed a promise to support marriage equality legislation. His convoluted response implied that I personally had some sort of political agenda in asking about his flip-flop. Moreover, Arora strangely claimed that he was in fact a supporter of equal rights. This last claim baffled many marriage equality advocates and led an anonymous source to weigh in with harsh comments (excerpt below):

ANONYMOUS SOURCE #1: As far as I can tell, there is nothing in the formal legislative record of him ever exercising his tiny little brain to actually draft an amendment and submit it for his colleagues consideration.  Once again -- he is trying to rewrite history -- and avoid the legitimate scrutiny that his lies deserve....

ARORA CLARIFIES HIS FLIP-FLOP (KIND OF) - Today The Washington Blade followed up with additional coverage of Sam Arora's explanation of his marriage equality flip-flop. Sam responded to a media call from The Blade by revealing evidence of the amendment he was talking about. It turns out that Arora joined Delegates Tiffany Alston and Geraldine Valentino-Smith in trying to turn the marriage equality bill into a civil unions bill. But Arora declined to mention that Alston ultimately voted for the marriage equality bill, while he voted against it. Check out a quick excerpt from The Blade's coverage:

WASHINGTON BLADE:  Maryland Del. Sam Arora (D-Montgomery County) - who campaigned on a pledge to support a marriage equality bill then voted against it -  has offered his first public explanation for the vote.

"A lot of us wanted the goal of full legal equality for all couples," Arora said during a Jan. 8 segment of NewsTalk with Bruce DePuyt in response to a question from David Moon of Maryland Juice, a website that covers state politics....

Arora also referenced an amendment that he, Del. Geraldine Valentino-Smith (D-Prince George’s County) and former Del. Tiffany Alston introduced that would have replaced marriage with civil unions in the bill - he directed the Washington Blade to it in response to a request for comment on Moon’s question....

The Blade also published comments from Del. Mary Washington highlighting that civil unions were not a serious alternative to the marriage equality legislation being debated at the time:

DEL. MARY WASHINGTON: "We were pushing for full marriage equality and that civil unions has been found to be inadequate," she said. "In fact states that have civil unions are actually now looking to full marriage equality...."

LEAKED DOCS: Handwritten Notes from Sam Arora's Interview with Equality Maryland // Democratic Lawmaker Is Lying

BACKGROUND: Maryland's Democratic lawmaker Sam Arora became notorious last year when he hinted at plans to betray the LGBT community. While running for office as a pro-marriage equality candidate in 2010, Arora raised money from the LGBT community and liberal Democrats alike.

LEAKED DOC: Maryland Lawmaker Sam Arora Sends Constituent Letter Explaining Marriage Equality Betrayal

UPDATE: AmericaBlog has caught wind of Sam Arora's response to constituents. The bloggers are outraged and say Arora is flat-out lying:

AMERICAblog: Maryland Delegate Sam Arora just issued a letter claiming that he never fully considered the issue of marriage equality before last year, 2011, and that's why he got so confused when the issue came up and flip-flopped on the issue, ultimately betraying his promise, his friends, and his constituents.

Only problem?  There's lots of proof that Arora considered the issue in 2010 and was fully in favor of marriage equality when he ran for election the first time.  So why is he so blatantly lying?

Now that Maryland's crazy primary elections are done, politicos can once again turn their eyes toward the November election and the corresponding 2014 jockeying. The timing couldn't be better, because everyone's favorite villain in Montgomery County politics is back in the hot seat this week. 

After weeks of stonewalling constituents, readers report that freshman lawmaker Sam Arora is finally mailing out letters explaining his betrayal of marriage equality supporters. We have obtained a copy of his constituent letter, which we publish below. Note: we have removed the constituent's name from the letter.

BACKGROUND: To catch you up, Sam Arora is a Democratic Delegate from Maryland's District 19 in Montgomery County. He won his first primary in 2010 while campaigning as a marriage equality supporter and fundraising from the LGBT community. After he won office, he inexplicably flip-flopped and voted against marriage equality. Even worse, he refused to provide an explanation to his friends, donors, constituents, and supporters -- many of whom felt betrayed by Arora.

For those hoping for an explanation of Sam Arora's betrayal, I hate to be the one to tell you that you won't find it here. The crux of the half-hearted "explanation" below is in the following statement from Sam Arora's constituent letter: 

SAM ARORA: "before last year, I had not fully considered the issue of legislating same-sex marriage." 

Uh, okay. This explanation amounts to an "oops" and does a great disservice to the residents of District 19. You can read the meaningless letter for yourself - see below.

REPLACE SAM ARORA WITH JAY HUTCHINS: Luckily, District 19 residents already have a solid alternative to Sam Arora in the 2014 Democratic Primary. The 2010 runner-up to Arora -- progressive Democrat Jay Hutchins -- has already announced he is ready for a rematch. 

Earlier this week, Hutchins contacted Maryland Juice to let us know that his campaign site is back up and he is now launching his campaign fundraising efforts. We are commemorating the occasion with a new website ad in support of Mr. Hutchins (@gojayhutchins on Twitter). 

Donate online at JayHutchins.org

Maryland Lawmaker Sam Arora's Letter to Constituents Explaining Marriage Equality Betrayal