By Adam Kramer
Several powerful Queens Democrats and about 100 influential members of the South Asian community attended a fund-raiser Sunday for Rory Lancman, who is running against Morshed Alam for the Democratic nomination in the race to unseat state Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose).
Lancman, 30, a south Flushing resident, is a Democratic Party regular who interned for U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Bayside) and worked for U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey (D-Rego Park) as her Queens election coordinator.
Alam, a native of Bangladesh who has lived in Queens for 15 years, captured 40 percent of the vote against Padavan in the 1998 election without the blessing of the Queens Democratic Party machine.
Ackerman, Assemblywoman Nettie Mayersohn (D-Fresh Meadows), state Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing), Assemblyman William Scarborough (D-St. Albans) and Assemblyman Scott Stringer (D-Manhattan) turned out for the afternoon event at the Bombay Palace Restaurant on Northern Boulevard in Great Neck.
Lancman said the voice of the South Asian community was not being heard in the halls of government and asked the question:
