Parting Gift

By Amanda Becker

Posted September 12, 2012 at 12:01am

Retiring Rep. Gary Ackerman received a gift so valuable last year that he couldn’t even determine its precise worth.

The New York Democrat described the only gift of $350 or more he received in 2011 on his annual financial disclosure statement as “the blessed opportunity for 30 years to pay back, in some small measure, the good things that happened to me.”

The source? The people.

The value? Priceless.

“It just dawned on me that it’s really a gift. I didn’t think anyone would notice, so I just wrote it down,” Ackerman said in a phone interview. “It’s hard to say thank you to everybody, you know?”

Ackerman said he had “no plans whatsoever” for his time once he leaves Congress.

Let HOH know, Congressman, if you need a reference for a gig as a MasterCard ad copywriter.

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