What rhymes with “Meng” and is running in NY-06 race?

Is anyone in Queens not running in the NY-06 Democratic primary?

The New York City Board of Elections confirms that a person named Juan Sheng is also running and submitted petitions yesterday. This is notable, in the opinion of the source who told me about Sheng (the source is not connected with any of the campaigns), because the last name Sheng rhymes with the last name of Assemblywoman Grace Meng – and the entry could well rev up even more talks about planted candidates in the race. After all, at least a few voters going to the polls on June 26 could well confuse Sheng with Meng.

The talk about plants has been going strong in NY-6 ever since Jeff Gottlieb’s entry into the race a week ago, which was blasted by Assemblyman Rory Lancman as an effort by Meng’s campaign to split the Jewish vote. (That charge that has since been backed up by some circumstantial evidence.)

A spokesman for Lancman’s campaign said yesterday that it had no knowledge of Sheng’s entry into the race. Meanwhile, Meng’s campaign is choosing not to make any accusations about the intentions of Sheng’s candidacy.

“We’re not very familiar with this person, but anybody who wants to run for office, and complies with the process to do so, should be able to present their qualifications and vision to the voters,” said Meng spokesman Michael Tobman.

This brings the total candidates in the Democratic primary to six: Lancman, Meng, Gottlieb, Councilwoman Liz Crowley, and a person named Robert Mittman. Republican Councilman Dan Halloran and Green Party candidate Evergreen Chou are also running.

I’ve been unable to find much of any information about Sheng as of yet.

UPDATE: I just saw that Azi Paybarah also posted about this a bit before me — and he has a bit more info about Sheng.