Story Created:
Dec 22, 2008 at 5:03 PM EST
Story Updated:
Dec 22, 2008 at 10:58 PM EST
UTICA, N.Y. (WKTV) - The downstate congressman who said "I don't do Utica", did Utica afterall.
Congressman Gary Ackerman, of Queens, toured the city on Monday--less than two weeks after making a controversial remark about Utica.
Ackerman arrived at Munson Williams Proctor Arts Institute about an hour and a half late, thanks to the wonderful upstate New York weather. His plane had to circle over Syracuse for a while before landing because of visibility, then the Thruway was a mess. But he made it here to clear up the controversial comment he made to a New York Post reporter on December 11th. He told the reporter he would not want to fill Hillary Clinton's U.S. Senate seat because, "I don't do Utica, and that's part of the job."
Ackerman told NEWSChannel 2 "the intent of that was not to be disparaging about Utica. I was trying to make a point, that it's a very difficult job to be Senator and you have to represent all of the people and you have to be willing to do the very difficult job of getting all around the state and meet the people to understand those problems and the state that I'm in, in my career, 26 years in Washington, I wasn't prepared to do that."
Congressman Michael Arcuri, a Utica native, invited Ackerman to tour the City of Utica. When asked if he thought people should still be upset after Ackerman's response, "well I think clearly he came up and said I'm sorry, in retrospect it got me here, it's a great place to be but clearly he apologized and explained why he said them so I think that's part of who we are, we understand and we now have a new friend downstate."
Utica Mayor David Roefaro joined the congressmen on the tour and said "I think we actually gained a friend here in Utica. I don't think it's going to be his last time back here. Even when the cameras were not on him, in the elevator he says mayor this is a great little community."
Ackerman held a news conference at Union Station and told Arcuri, "thank you for inviting me. Mike when you tell me next time why it's important for this part of the state in this great country of ours, I'll have a lot of faces in front of me to know who it's important to."
Besides Munson Williams and Union Station, the congressman also toured the Stanley Performing Arts Center and the F.X. Matt Brewery.
CLICK HERE TO CONTACT CONGRESSMAN ACKERMAN
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