The end of the business day today, March 27, marks the filing deadline for the 11 candidates who’ve announced they’ll seek the Democratic Party nomination to fill the seat being vacated after 23 years by Rep. Jim Moran. The candidates all need to have submitted 1,000 valid petition signatures and a $3,480 filing fee. The candidates are all waiting to see how many of the 11 who’ve announced will actually qualify for the June 10 primary ballot.

So far, only one initially-announced candidate has dropped out, State Del. Mark Sickles of Springfield, who this week threw his support to State Sen. Adam Ebbin. Going by the volume of e-mails finding their way to the News-Press in-box, the most active campaigns to date have been those of former Virginia Lieutenant Gov. Don Beyer, Ebbin and State Del. Patrick Hope.