Some fierce fights are on tap in the April 4 race for all six district seats on the Colorado Springs City Council, as several new candidates surfaced Monday to beef up the competition.

Major developers affiliated with Colorado Springs Forward, a prominent political policy group, are putting plenty of money behind their favorite challengers, including one who didn’t even make the ballot Monday.

Deborah Hendrix, who wants to challenge Councilwoman Helen Collins in District 4, has amassed $11,000 in big contributions, including gifts from Colorado Springs Forward’s board chairman Phil Lane, of Culebra Properties, and board member Douglas Stimple of Classic Companies (aka Classic Homes). Yet she fell short of the 50 valid petition signatures required.

The council job pays $6,250 a year.

City Clerk Sarah Johnson and her staff worked into the evening to verify signatures and found Hendrix and three other would-be candidates with fewer than 50 valid signatures. They have until 5 p.m. Friday to ratchet up their numbers.

These are the candidates on the ballot and those who have until Friday to try again:

– In District 1, Councilman Don Knight is seeking re-election to keep representing Rockrimmon and the rest of the city’s northwest corner.

His challenger is Greg Basham, a local businessman who is expected to get Colorado Springs Forward support.

Tony Gioia, a real estate broker, backed out of the race and endorsed Basham. He said he didn’t want to split the vote against Knight.

– Councilman Larry Bagley is stepping down from his northernmost District 2, and lawyer Timothy Dietz and former lawyer David Geislinger will try to replace him.

Kanda Calef, who lost a run against Bagley in 2015, endorsed Dietz, “who has declared that he wants to ‘drain the swamp’ and, in the past, has assisted former Council Member Joel Miller with a lawsuit against the city for withholding information from citizens.”

Dietz also is expected to be on Colorado Springs Forward’s slate.

Geislinger, a former lawyer in the District Attorney’s Office, now works for Holy Apostles Catholic Church and is a chaplain at Penrose-St. Francis Health Services. When he saw no other candidates lining up last week, “I felt called that somebody from our district had to run,” he said.

– District 3 candidates to represent the west side and Broadmoor area are former Vice Mayor Richard Skorman; Chuck Fowler, a consultant who was the 2011 co-chair of the old City Committee, a government accountability group; and cannabis club owner Jaymen Johnson. Possibly also running is Kurt Bunch, a property manager whose wife owns Shuga’s restaurant; he fell short on valid signatures.

Skorman is an advocate for open space, a founder of the Trails, Open Space and Parks sales tax program and owner of four downtown businesses.

Because he battled the city’s Strawberry Fields land swap with the Broadmoor – a trade that Colorado Springs Forward supported – he expects Fowler to have formidable financing from businesses affiliated with that group.

Skorman has plenty of name recognition, though, having served on the council from 1999 to 2006.

Fowler, who provides reports and consultation on homeowner associations, lost his Parkside home when Mountain Shadows burned in the 2012 Waldo Canyon fire, just four months after the death of his wife.

None of the three candidates has filed campaign finance reports yet.

Earlier candidate Joseph Carlson decided not to run.

– In the southeast quadrant of District 4, Collins, a Navy veteran, is being challenged by Yolanda L. Avila, a public transportation activist who is legally blind. Avila lost a 2015 campaign for an at-large council seat.

Hendrix, former school board president for Harrison District 20, tried unsuccessfully to recall Collins two years ago and lost the 2013 council race to her. She still could run if she gets enough signatures by Friday.

– Council President Pro Tem Jill Gaebler, representing the central city and Old North Side in District 5, is being challenged by Lynette Crow-Iverson, Colorado Springs Forward’s former board chairwoman.

Like Hendrix, Crow-Iverson has amassed $11,000 from four developers, including $6,000 from Nor’wood Development Group.

Gaebler, an Air Force veteran, collected about $11,000 in mostly small donations of $100 or less.

– District 6 Councilman Andres G. Pico, chairman of the Utilities Board, suddenly is awash in potential competition. Janak Joshi is verified for the ballot in the eastern Colorado Springs district race, and would-be candidates Melanie Berkhardt and Robert Burns need more valid signatures to make the ballot.

Joshi, a former state representative for District 16, lost his bid for to Larry Liston in last June’s Republican primary. The retired 30-year doctor surrendered his medical license in 2008.

Next up for the City Clerk’s Office is a drawing at 1 p.m. Friday to determine the order in which candidates’ names will appear on the ballot.