Background
Lancman was born and raised in Queens and is a graduate of New York City Public School 164, Parsons Junior High School, and Hillcrest High School.
Lancman was born and raised in Queens and is a graduate of New York City Public School 164, Parsons Junior High School, and Hillcrest High School.
Queens College, City University of New New York Columbia Law School.
He is a Democrat. The district includes Briarwood, Cunningham Park, Flushing, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Fresh Meadows, Hollis, Holliswood, Jamaica, Jamaica Estates, Jamaica Hills, Kew Gardens, Kew Gardens Hills and Richmond Hill in Queens. Formerly, Lancman served as a New York State Assembly member, representing the 25th Assembly District in Queens from 2007 to 2013. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Queens College (City University of New York) in 1991 and a Juris Doctor degree from Columbia Law School in 1995, to which he had transferred after a year at the Benjamin North. Cardozo School of Law.
He also served in the New York"s 42nd Infantry Division.
Lancman served on Community Board 8 for over sixteen years, chairing first the Aging Committee and then the Youth & Education Committee. He ran unsuccessfully for the New York Senate in 2000, losing to Frank Padavan.
He was first elected to the State Assembly in 2006, and ran uncontested in the 2008 and 2010 general elections. In 2012, Lancman sought the Democratic nomination for New York"s 6th congressional district.
He faced member Elizabeth Crowley and fellow Assembly member Grace Meng, and eventually lost to Meng.
A large campaign war chest gave Lancman"s campaign cause to believe they would emerge the victor, but Meng went on to take it with over 50% of the vote. On November 19, 2012, Lancman declared his run for the 24th City Council district, seeking to succeed James F. Gennaro in the 2013 election. Council Member Lancman became the chair of a newly created committee on the called the Committee on Courts and Legal Services.
Although both are liberal, Lancman has been critical of Mayor Bill de Blasio at times.
Lancman won a score of endorsements, including the Queens County Democratic Party, the Working Families Party, the United Federation of Teachers, American Federation of Labor-Congress-Chief Information Officer, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, SEIU 32BJ, and 1199 SEIU. Lancman defeated two other candidates in the primary and went on to win the general election in November 2013.
In September 2007, he was named one of City Hall"s "40 under 40" for being a young influential member of New York City politics.