We no longer have to wonder who’s definitely running for Pittsburgh mayor. Seven candidates filed to be the Democratic nominee for mayor along with one Republican, Josh Wander.

Speculation has run rampant since Mayor Luke Ravenstahl dropped out of the mayor’s race last month. Both Pittsburgh City Councilor Bill Peduto and Pittsburgh City Controller Michael Lamb filed their petitions as expected — Peduto with nearly 2,700 signatures and Lamb with more than 1,300 petitions.

Also running for mayor are current state Sen. Jim Ferlo, also a former councilman, City Council President Darlene Harris, State Rep. Jake Wheatley, and former state Auditor General Jack Wagner. A final Democrat, A.J. Richardson, a bus monitor from Sheraden also filed petitions.

Let's hope the county is printing up more election petitions: state Sen. Wayne Fontana, a South Hills Democrat, is garnering signatures for his own potential mayoral bid.

"I am not 100 percent committed to doing it at this point," Fontana told me a short time ago. While he says he's been encouraged to run, "Getting signatures is just a very small part of it. It's about seeing who steps up and says, 'You're the best candidate.' I'm a little late getting into the game here, I realize that. And if people tell me they are already committed to other candidates, that may be why I decide not to do it."

Still, he says, "Crazier things have happened."

Fontana would join a field that has mushroomed in the days since Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's decsion not to seek reelection. In addition to City Councilor Bill Peduto and City Controller Michael Lamb, City Councilor Darlene Harris is circulating petitions, as is former state Auditor General Jack Wagner. State Sen. Jim Ferlo is also weighing a bid.

Earlier today, mayoral chief of staff Yarone Zober provided reporters with financial records concerning debit cards used by the mayor's bodyguards — debit cards linked to a controversial bank account at the Greater Pittsburgh Police Federal Credit Union.

The account is apparently being probed by federal investigators looking into the city's bureau of police. As details of that investigation came to light, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl asked for the resignation of police chief Nate Harper. But that hasn't stemmed the flow of disclosures: All three officers in the mayor's security detail, it turns out, received a credit-union debit card — and former bodyguard Fred Crawford has accused the mayor's office of deploying the cards to conceal the mayor's activities.

Ravenstahl has staunchly denied those accusations — and even as he announced that he was dropping his bid for re-election, Zober sought to disprove them with today's release.

City council president Darlene Harris said today she is "not ruling out" running for mayor, in the wake of Mayor Luke Ravenstahl dropping his re-election bid this morning.

"I'm keeping my options open," she tells City Paper.

She said one contributing factor to whether she would run or not was her family, citing the same stress of politics and personal toll that Ravenstahl cited in his speech today.

"I've been involved to make the city better for over 30 years and this was the first job i was ever paid to do it for," she said. "I intend to keep doing it. I never thought about running for school board. I never thought about running for this position or running for mayor. But I'll keep that option open."

When asked about the two current candidates for mayor — City Councilor Bill Peduto and City Controller Michael Lamb — Ravenstahl said "that'll change soon," expecting more names to jump into the race and encouraged other candidates to do so. In fact, Ravenstahl said he had a particular candidate in mind, even though he hadn't yet approached that individual."

Fo Harris' part, she admits that "it's a lot of stress to run for office" and Ravenstahl was affected by much of that stress "coming up as young as he did. Sometimes it takes it's toll."

She said she hadn't had time to evaluate how the city has fared under his leadership, in the whirlwind of this week's speculation about his future.

"We agreed on some things, and disagreed on others," she said. "It doesn't make good government if you agree all the time."

Citing the "grueling demands" of his office and "significant sacrifice," Mayor Luke Ravenstahl today announced that he is dropping his bid for re-election.

"After a careful and considerable amount of thought I have decided that that price has become too great to endure," Ravenstahl said, with his parents by his side. "As a result ... I'm dropping my bid for re-election. I do so without any reservation and with a clear mind."

Ravenstahl had formally launched his re-election campaign on Feb. 19.

Ravenstahl denied his decision was based on the federal investigation into mysterious police department accounts that led to the resignation of former police chief Nate Harper.

"Many will speculate about my motives and conclude that the investigation is my reason for today," Ravenstahl said. "It's not. I've done nothing wrong. That will be proven over time."

He also stressed that he wasn't worried about his prospects for re-election.

"Politics for me have never been about winning," he said. "I'm not dropping from this race because I'm worried about losing. In fact I can say I'm more confident today" then he ever has been.

Ravenstahl said he is encouraging a specific candidate to enter the race in his absence, but declined to disclose his or her identity.

Ravenstahl thanked his supporters and got choked up while talking about his staff. He did not rule out a future run for office and said he would remain in Pittsburgh.

He touted the Pittsburgh Promise scholarship program as his greatest accomplishment but declined to name any regrets while in office. He vehemently denied accusations made against by former bodyguard Fred Crawford Jr., alleging the Mayor knew of fraudulent debit cards used by police officers, and forced staff to falsify time sheets.

In a statement, mayoral challenger and city councilor Bill Peduto said that he "understand[s] how difficult a decision this was and would like to extend our sincere best wishes to Luke Ravenstahl and his family. My campaign will continue to focus on taking Pittsburgh in a better direction and making the city the most livable for all of our residents.”

Fellow mayoral candidate and city controller Michael Lamb followed suit, saying, in a statement, he respects the decision. "As our city continues to face serious challenges, I hope to work with the Mayor, his Administration, and City Council for the remainder of his term toward our common goal of improving Pittsburgh and the lives of the people who call it home."

City councilor Bruce Kraus also said he supported Ravenstahl's decision and said that the city would benefit from leadership that wasn't distracted by a re-election campaign.

"There is a lot of work that takes place minute by minute, hour by hour, and day by day. I personally think that’s difficult to do when you are distracted on a daily, almost hourly, basis with a campaign," Kraus said. " I'm supportive of the mayor's decision. It takes a lot of courage to do it."

According to a release from the Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's office, he will address the media this morning at 11 a.m.

City Paper will be there to bring you the latest. Follow @charliedee71 on Twitter for live tweets from the event.

Employment in the City of Pittsburgh is up. Crime rates are down. And Mayor Luke Ravenstahl wants you to know: It's no coincidence that it happened on his watch.

Local employment is "more than at the height of the steel industry," Ravenstahl told a crowd of about 200 at his campaign kickoff at his strip District campaign headquarters Tuesday night. "We've created a climate for growth.

"This stuff doesn't happen by accident."

This will come as little surprise to readers of this space, but City Councilor Bill Peduto has filed a petition with the county Board of Elections, seeking "clarification" on "several ambiguities and irregularities," in rival candidate Michael Lamb's campaign-finance report. But it's unclear whether the move will accomplish anything beyond scoring some political points.

Peduto's filing — a full version of which can be found here — raises some questions noted here nearly three weeks ago. Specifically, the petition argues that instead of setting up a "Lamb for Mayor" committee, Lamb is improperly tapping money from the committee that financed his previous runs for city controller. "At no time did Lamb form a separate political committee and checking account for Mayor," the petition notes, "even though such action is required under ... the City Code."

That may sound like a trifling distinction, but the argument goes to the heart of Lamb's fundraising. Lamb's 2012 annual report — which details money he plans to use for a mayoral campaign — includes more than $60,000 left over from his 2011 run for City Controller. And almost all the money raised in 2012 would be at issue as well: While Peduto says a candidate can transfer money from one campaign to another, he argues that such contributions should be subject to the same $8,000-per-election-cycle limits that govern any other political donation. But Peduto's filing also raises another concern: that Lamb may have voided such limits completely.

Much of this afternoon's mayoral debate -- the first such event of the 2013 season -- involved City councilor Bill Peduto attacking Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, Ravenstahl attacking Bill Peduto … and City Controller Michael Lamb agreeing with each of them about the other.

Eventually, video of the debate, and an ensuing forum for candidates in city council district 8, will be posted online by the Democrats of the city's 7th Ward. Hell, it may even be up by the time you finish this post, which I'll warn you is like 1,100 words long.

There were some points of agreement during the discussion, which was hosted by the 14th Ward Independent Democratic Club before a standing-room-only crowd at Squirrel Hill's Wightman Community Building. All three candidates seemed supportive, for example, of a $80 million tax subsidy to spark development at the site of the former Hazelwood coke works. And all agreed that the city's large non-profits had to contribute more to the city's bottom line. ("They need to do more," was how Raventahl put it. "That's just the reality of the situation") Though there were debates about how best to approach it: Lamb seemed to cast his net most widely, discussing a plan to have paramedics visit residents with chronic health conditions between emergency calls, in hopes of reducing emergency-room visits. (UPMC and Highmark were supporting a pilot project, said Lamb: "It's probably the only thing they've agreed on this year.")

The most pointed exchanges were between Peduto and Ravenstahl, and some of them revisited issues that date back to the mid 2000s, when both men were on council. During that time, for example, Peduto voted against an $18 million tax subsidy for a PNC Bank office tower; Ravenstahl favored it. Today, Ravenstahl said the project helped spawn a wave of Downtown construction, and said of Peduto, "I assume he's proud of his vote."

Peduto's reply: "It's a hard case to make that PNC doesn't have the money and needed" subsidies.