By Nicole Johnson

When he isn’t wrestling with political issues, Delegate Riley E. Ingram likes to watch World Wrestling Federation matches.

So when Philip Morris offered Ingram some tickets to WWF SmackDown wrestling, the legislator accepted – but not just for himself. He took to the event some constituents: two mentally retarded men who are big fans of the WWF.

Last year, Ingram, a Republican from Hopewell, received $160 in WWF SmackDown tickets from Philip Morris. The tickets were among the more unusual gifts legislators received from organizations, businesses and individuals.

These quirky gifts often reflect lawmakers’ personalities, interests and hobbies. Fourteen legislators received golf balls, golf bags or other golf-related items. Other gifts included an autographed football, commemorative clocks and eyeglass lenses.

Delegate R. Steven Landes receives a trail ride every year from the Virginia Horse Council. The trail ride, valued at $150, includes a weekend of barbecues and horseback riding.

Landes’ wife is a horse fan, and the family has enjoyed the activity for years, the legislator’s assistant said. The Horse Council is based in the Shenandoah Valley, Landes’ district.

While Landes enjoys riding horses, Sen. Emmett W. Hanger, R-Mount Solon, likes a good blue-grass festival. Last year, the senator attended a fiddler’s convention – with Norfolk Southern picking up the $150 tab.

Legislators must list gifts of more than $50 on the Statements of Economic Interests that they file each year. Most gifts involve meals or trips, but some go well beyond the regular dinner-and-a-play combination.

Delegate Terry Kilgore’s gift list includes the "use of an aircraft." But Kilgore’s assistant says the delegate definitely doesn’t know how to fly a plane. Instead, the Republican from Gate City said he hops on a coal company’s plane when he needs to get to Richmond from his Bristol neighborhood.

It’s a 300-mile trip as the crow flies.

"I just catch a plane; it saves a couple hundred dollars," Kilgore said.

The Pittson Coal Co. has offices in Richmond and flies a plane to the city every weekend.

Delegate David Albo, R-Springfield, took a substantially longer flight last year. The American Council of Young Political Leaders sent him to Bulgaria – at a cost of $3,250.

Other gifts legislators received were decidedly more commonplace.

Delegate Alan Diamondstein, D-Newport News, received a $47 ice bucket from SunTrust Bank. Republican Delegate H. Morgan Griffith got $132 in eyeglass lenses from Vistar Eye Center in his hometown of Salem.

Delegate James Shuler, D-Blacksburg, received four umbrellas, valued at $33, from Sprint. And Delegate John Rust, a Republican from Fairfax, got a $50 flashlight from Columbia Gas.

Other gifts stay in the boxes in which they are delivered.

Delegate R. Creigh Deeds, D-Warm Springs, received a $71 Mary Washington plate from Virginia Waste Industries after he spoke to the organization at The Homestead. But Deeds’ assistant said the legislator has never taken the plate out of the box.