There are a record number of Asian Americans either running for Congress this cycle or flirting with the idea. Here's a quick update:

Ami Bera (CA-07), Mark Takano (CA-41), Manan Trivedi (PA-06)

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee recently announced the 36 races that have qualified for the first slate of the highly competitive Red to Blue program and it includes two potential pick-ups in CA. Physician Ami Bera from Northern California and Educator Mark Takano from Riverside. According to the DCCC, "races have earned a spot on Red to Blue by surpassing demanding fundraising, organization and infrastructure goals and with candidates that demonstrate they are problem solvers who will represent new priorities when elected to Congress." Both men have run before and come oh-so very close. Hopefully, this will be a better year for Dems.

In addition, Iraqi-War vet Manan Trivedi, who also ran in 2010, was named to the "Emerging Races."

Ro Khanna (CA-15)

Even though he has yet to announce, Ro Khanna, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Commerce Department under Barack Obama's administration, just released some staggering numbers: $1.2 million in a single quarter, without self-funding. According to Daily Kos:

Khanna is tapping into the large Indian community in the U.S., which has raised a ton of cash for other Indian-American congressional hopefuls in recent years, like Ami Bera in California and Manan Trivedi in Pennsylvania. It also helps that none other than Nancy Pelosi attended a recent fundraiser which netted a cool $440K in a single night. (He's also been getting assistance from Gov. Jerry Brown and former cabinet secretary Norm Mineta.) Pelosi's involvement also tells us something, since it's hard to imagine her supporting a challenge against Stark in the primary, so she must be expecting Khanna to wait until the seat is open, perhaps next cycle.

Jun Choi (NJ-07)

This happened over the Holidays, but former Edison, NJ, Mayor Jun Choi dropped his bid for Congress. He was hoping to challenge incumbent Republican Leonard Lance, but his powerbase was redistricted out. Man, those Republicans really know how to make the redistricting process work for them.

Tammy Duckworth (IL-08)

In the competitive primary that pits Iraqi-War vet Tammy Duckworth and former state Dept. Treasurere Raja Krishnamoorthi, every little edge counts. Here is an interview that just appeared in the local NBC blog.

Q: You ran six years ago and lost. What makes you think you have more of a chance of success this time?
A: I’ve now had six years of leadership in government. When I was at the state of Illinois, we did so many things that were very innovative. We instituted the first crisis hotline in the country for veterans with mental health issues. The national VA is doing that now. There’s also a crisis chat room now, because a lot of our guys are overseas, and they can’t call but they can get to a computer. I ran four nursing homes in the state of Illinois when I was there, and understand making sure our seniors are covered and the cost of prescription drugs. I was able to cut down the amount of money the state spent on prescription drugs by moving our formulary under the federal VA, because the federal VA can negotiate lower drug prices.