When former reality TV star Surya Yalamanchili ("The Apprentice") announced his candidacy for the 2nd Congressional district, he came out as an independent. Now, after a few months of campaigning, he has decided to pursue the Democratic nomination. The announcement from his website:

Here's an interesting development out of my home state. This past week, Lt. Gov. John Cherry, the presumed favorite, withdrew from the race for Governor of Michigan. That has opened up a floodgate of new candidates, including progressive State Senator Hansen Clarke. Sen. Clarke was kind enough to join us at the kick off of our APAP Chapter in Detroit last year. We definitely look forward to supporting him as well.

Reaction to President Obama's plan to send an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan has been decidely mixed with some resistance from progressive members of Congress. Joining this chorus is APAP PAC-endorsed candidate Manan Trivedi who just released this statement. 

Here's a link to an awesome audioclip of Comptroller-elect John Liu discussing his own race, as well as the Asian American community in general. In the eight-minute clip, Liu discusses everything from the historic number of Asian American candidates to the dynamics of the AAPI community, calling it a friendly "sibling rivalry." Liu also discusses how the different communities were ultimately able to cross ethnic lines and support different AAPI candidates. It's a great interview and definitely worth a listen. It's obvious that Liu has a great knowledge of the AAPI community.