The race to fill the Ward 5 seat on the D.C. Council once held by Harry Thomas, Jr. is on.

Starting this morning, potential candidates can pick up nominating petitions to get themselves on the ballot for the May 15 election. They’ll have until February 15 to gather 500 signatures to place their names on the ballot.

As Mike DeBonis noted a few weeks back, there’s no shortage of possible contenders, and this morning WUSA9 reported that over 20 names have been floated. One of those, former Ward 5 candidate and progressive hopeful Kenyan McDuffie, was down at the election board yesterday to file his statement of candidacy. (On this morning’s segment on the possible contenders, WUSA9 mistakenly showed a clip of Mitt Romney campaigning. Hey, it’s not the presidency, but at least he’d be an elected leader in Washington, right?)

As for the other races leading up to the April 3 primary, a challenge process ended earlier this week, and most everyone who submitted their petitions will be on the ballot. A few hopefuls are being challenged, though — Yvette Alexander in Ward 7, E. Gail Anderson for an At Large seat, and Jauhar Abraham and Gary “Ric” Feenster in Ward 8. Over the next few weeks the election board will consider the challenges and decide whether or not the candidates make it to the ballot.