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In the beginning, there was John Liu. When he joined the City Council in 2002, Liu became the city’s first Asian-American elected official. Last year, he became the first to win citywide office when he was elected comptroller. But he is no longer alone.

"In these last several years, many more Asian-Americans are coming out to run. We had a record number of Asian-Americans running for City Council last year," Liu said.

Two of them won: Margaret Chin, who became Chinatown’s first Asian-American representative, along with Peter Koo of Queens. Another, Kevin Kim, lost a close race. It’s a sign that Asian-Americans’ political clout may finally be catching up to their fast growing numbers in New York.

"You’ve got an emerging political community. It’s traditional in New York. Immigrant groups come in, they stay for a generation, they move up the socioeconomic ladder, and then they get involved in politics," said Doug Muzzio of Baruch College.

Overall, Asian-Americans make up about 12 percent of the city’s population. The largest concentration can be found in Flushing, Queens, where back in 2001 state lawmakers made a deliberate effort to get an Asian-American elected to the state Legislature, redrawing the boundaries of the local Assembly district to make it majority Asian-American.

And it worked.

In 2004, Jimmy Meng became the first Asian-American to win state office. The Assembly seat is now held by his daughter, Grace, who says she encountered blatant racism working on her father’s campaign.

"People would literally throw his campaign literature at me and say, we will never, ever elect an Asian-American in Flushing," Meng said.

It seems things have changed. Asian-American voter turnout is up dramatically, and politicians now make it a point to visit.

"We used to sort of be the community where people, candidates, just came to do a fundraiser, take a picture with us, and then we would never see them again. But now they come to us even when it’s not election season," Meng said.

"I think that they’re all recognizing that there is a growing number of voters in our community. And they should pay more attention," said City Councilwoman Margaret Chin.

It’s a trend that seems likely only to accelerate.

"In New York City, we have about at least 12 percent population Asians. So by that proportion, we should have more than two City Council members. We should have about maybe five," said City Councilman Peter Koo.