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passing them. But, due to the large number of people who signed the petition (24 percent of the adult pop. of Rappahannock), Guest made an exception and introduced the legislation. Before doing so, however, he did inform the supervisors by letter of RPAC’s request and of his intent to comply with it. He asked the supervisors for their “feelings” on the matter.
Then on January 21 Guest presented the bill to the General Assembly; that day it was referred to the Committee on Privileges and Elections. On the 29th the bill was assigned to a subcommittee and on February 4 the bill was “passed by indefinitely.” That phrase, according to Senator Kevin Miller, means the bill is dead.
Asked why the bill failed, Guest described a face-off between himself and the committee, from which neither would back down. The committee, he said, persisted in its request that the result of the referendum bind the supervisors. For the referendum to have any meaning, committee members argued, it would have to be binding.
Guest reaffirmed his position that the referendum be advisory, reminding committee members of RPAC’s and his own wishes to respect the ultimate authority of the supervisors.
The bill’s fate was sealed when Guest told the committee that the referendum would be “advisory or nothing” and the committee chose the latter. RPAC’s temporary chairman, Ron Frazier, said in a phone conversation that he supported Guest’s opposition to a binding referendum, which “would remove legislative authority from the supervisors.”
“We wanted it (the referendum) to be advisory only,” said Frazier, adding that they (RPAC) thought it would be easier to get through the General Assembly that way.
Frazier disagreed with the committee’s verdict that an advisory referendum would be meaningless. “I can’t see how that would be meaningless,” said Frazier, citing the possibility of a “silent majority” being discovered through an advisory referendum.
Then Frazier spoke of a majority that he believed was beginning to be heard. “A majority of the neODle are
92.8%