Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies, and the real answers:

Question: When will Congressman Chuck Edwards hold a town hall meeting in WNC? A lot of other congressmen and women have held them lately, and they’ve become kind of heated.

My answer: I’m going to go out on a limb here and say, “Never.” Unless the congressman has a penchant for taking spittle showers, that is.

Real answer: If you haven’t been following along, several members of Congress have held town hall meetings in their districts lately, and they essentially turned into shouting matches, with a dose of heckling thrown in for good measure. It seems President Donald Trump’s budget- and federal workers-slashing agenda has gotten many voters pretty riled up, especially against Republican members of Congress like Edwards.

I reached out to Edwards’ spokesperson Maria Kim, who provided a statement from the congressman.

“Being accessible, listening, and answering questions for the people of WNC are among my favorite activities,” Edwards said. “That is why in my first term as congressman, I held eight in-person town halls. I planned another but had to cancel it due to the hurricane.

“That works out to be about one every quarter, and I hope to maintain a similar pace this term depending on my legislative calendar. Additionally, I continue to hold regular tele-town halls, which allow many more folks to participate directly by simply dialing in.”

Edwards, who lives in Hendersonville, was first elected in 2022 and then re-elected last November. 

Michael Bitzer, a political scientist at Catawba College, said it would be no surprise that a member of Congress might opt out of doing an in-person town hall these days, given the country’s divisive mood.

“This used to be kind of standard fare, that when they weren’t in legislative session they were working back in the district,” Bitzer said. “Members of Congress would do these town halls to kind of gauge what’s going on in their communities and to really kind of show the constituency services that members are expected to do. I think the likely impact of political polarization has kind of turned that on its head.”

This is nothing new, of course, Bitzer said, noting that when former President Barack Obama was pushing the Affordable Care Act, the controversial plan generated vehement opposition and shouting matches at town halls.

“I think that’s become now the new norm — if a certain segment of the citizenry is aggravated, they are going to show up and they are going to let their members of Congress know,” Bitzer said, noting that back then the Tea Party, and then MAGA Republicans in recent months, were the ones getting fired up. “Now, I think you’re seeing the reverse happen. It’s maybe one of the last true bipartisan dynamics of our politics — that both sides can get equally yelled at.”

Bitzer noted that security looms large with elected officials these days. In the past two decades Republican and Democratic members of Congress have been shot, and President Trump endured two assassination attempts last year.

“That has got to be a primary consideration, particularly by the member and their staff — that we have seen these kinds of violence erupt,” Bitzer said. “And this is a potential breeding ground for those kinds of violent rhetoric, but also expressions and acts. So this is something that I think any elected official is going to take very carefully into consideration.”

Question: I have a question I’d love answered about license plates. I moved to Asheville a year ago from out of state, and when I registered my cars and got new plates the first three letters were LAK for both. As I started driving around more, and still a year later, I feel like almost everyone’s plates start with LAK! I know it’s not a huge city, but it feels like they have sooooo many LAK plates to give out and not many other combinations. I find it hard to believe that this many people also got new plates recently. How long have they been giving out LAK plates? Are there similar patterns like this in other North Carolina cities? What’s the explanation?

My answer: I’m completely LAKing a response here, but I will ask you to set up an appointment with me for further snark, which I will get to in six months. Actually, I just checked and all the appointments are taken.

Real answer: The North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles is not up to any funny business here.

“This just sort of happens,” Marty Homan, a spokesperson for the North Carolina DMV, said via email. “It’s not intentional to have a certain letter combo in a certain area, except for the OBX plates in Dare County.”

The DMV makes deliveries every few months to its license plate agencies to fulfill plate orders.

“We print in batches with the same prefix, and then they are distributed,” Homan said. “So it is possible that a license plate agency, and even multiple in a certain region or on a certain delivery route, could all be getting the same prefix at a given time.”

The Asheville route goes like this: Asheville (south), Asheville (west), Marshall, Brevard, Hendersonville, Columbus/Polk County.

Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Got a question? Send it to John Boyle at jboyle@avlwatchdog.org or 828-337-0941. His Answer Man columns appear each Tuesday and Friday. The Watchdog’s reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.

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