Deep into the June ballot is one of San Francisco’s hottest races, pitting Democrat against Democrat. For a field of candidates that share many beliefs, they sure have found plenty to fight about. It’s a battle of left vs. further left, grassroots activists vs. elected officials, pro-growth vs. no-growth and — as is always the case in this city — personality vs. personality, grudge vs. grudge.

One might wonder why so many big names in San Francisco politics are running for a position on the Democratic County Central Committee that offers no pay and such unglamorous duties as registering voters, chartering political clubs, soliciting donations and sitting through interminable meetings.

The short answer: Name recognition trumps all in a field of 60.

“It’s an arms race” between the progressive and moderate factions, said candidate Alix Rosenthal, a party activist who is rather chagrined at the proliferation of current and former elected officials who clearly have no interest in staffing voter-registration tables outside Costco or at naturalization ceremonies.

“If all these people win, there isn’t going to be anyone left to do the party’s business,” she said.

So why are the stakes sufficient to draw seemingly busy elected officials into the fray of what the insiders call the “D-triple-C”?

In a word: endorsements.

“The lowest elected, entry-level, volunteer position in the city is being fought over by some of the brand names in San Francisco politics for the sole purpose of commanding the endorsement process for November and beyond,” said Tom Hsieh, the DCCC treasurer.

As Rosenthal put it, “The Democratic Party endorsement is the most important endorsement to have in the city.”

Hsieh and some of the other relative moderates in the party are accusing the progressive faction of a power play to move the endorsements leftward. And whenever the words “progressive” and “power play” pop up in the same sentence, suspicions naturally turn to Aaron Peskin, the crafty champion of the left who returned to the Board of Supervisors by defeating Julie Christensen, Mayor Ed Lee’s appointee to the Board of Supervisors, in November.

Peskin chuckled at accusations he was orchestrating a progressive takeover of the local party.

“I don’t have the bandwidth” to lead such a revolt, said the newly elected supervisor, insisting he “rather late and reluctantly” got into the DCCC race. “The reality is that I’m not running the show here.”

But there is no doubt that Peskin has strong views about the direction of the committee under Chair Mary Jung, a registered lobbyist for real estate interests. He said her professional role, and policy objectives, were “quite antithetical to what is mainstream ideology” in San Francisco.

DCCC Recording Secretary Kat Anderson, a candidate for re-election, said Jung was being maligned unfairly by the progressive “reform slate.” Jung is “not this evil real estate lobbyist,” said Anderson, but a longtime party activist who has been a “very committed and hard-working chair.” Anderson casts the race as a choice between the “reform slate” and the “perform slate.”

From the moderate camp, Hsieh deplores what he regards as the absolutist approach of the progressives in a diverse city of free thinkers.

“It’s either you’re on the island with them on every issue ... or you’re voted off the island,” he said. “It’s very black-and-white; it’s very unforgiving. ... San Francisco doesn’t like bullies.”

So on one level, the campaign for the DCCC is a robust struggle for the soul of the local party, spiced with an abundance of long-running feuds and grievances. Activists on each side have recruited the big names to enhance their chances of claiming control of the party.

But candidates for other offices have another, more pernicious, motive for simultaneously running for the party’s county committee. Unlike a race for a city or state position, the DCCC imposes no dollar limits on campaign contributions.

“And there are many candidates who have figured this out,” said Rosenthal.

The loophole is enormous. For example, a candidate for supervisor can accept no more than $500 from an individual; a candidate for the Legislature is limited to $4,200 per election from a single source.

Thus, a city or state candidate running for DCCC can collect unlimited amounts from wealthy individuals or corporations — and spend that money to raise his or her profile against opponents for a city or state office who are constrained by limits on the size or source of donations.

“That’s definitely a problem,” said Peskin, emphasizing that he never used that dual-track approach.

“It’s an easy fix,” he added, suggesting the DCCC should adopt the city’s $500-per-source-per-year limit.

Removal of the financial incentive for ambitious politicians to join a DCCC race might make the campaigns a little less interesting, but it would be more consistent with the party activists’ professed disdain for the dominance of unregulated money in politics.

It also might result in the election of a few more committee members who are willing to occupy those registration tables on a blustery winter day.

John Diaz is The San Francisco Chronicle’s editorial page editor. Email: jdiaz@sfchronicle.com

Who’s on the ballot? A better question — who’s not?

Candidates for San Francisco’s Democratic County Central Committee

Arlo Smith Jon Golinger Shaun Haines Cindy Wu Sophie Maxwell Francis Tsang Nicholas Pasquariello Tom Ammiano Scott Wiener Bevan Dufty Rodney Hauge Petra DeJesus Jo Elias-Jackson Pratima Gupta Aaron Peskin Malia Cohen Rafael Mandelman Michael Grafton David Campos Alysabeth Alexander Francis Hsieh Leah Pimentel Marlene Tran Gary McCoy Alix Rosenthal Wendy Chau London Breed Melissa San Miguel Rebecca Prozan Wade Woods Jill Wynns Zoe Dunning Jane Kim Rick Hauptman John Burton David Giesen Joshua Arce Gladys Soto Tom Hsieh Mary Jung Rachel Norton Joel Engardio Kat Anderson Keith Baraka Sandra Lee Fewer Norman Yee Brigitte Davila Samuel Kwong Myrna Melgar Hene Kelly Bill Fazio Emily Murase Eric Mar Marjan Philhour Gabriel Medina Leah LaCroix Angela Alioto Trevor McNeil Tom A. Hsieh Mark Farrell

The names in bold represent members of the Board of Supervisors; 9 of the 11 are running for the DCCC this year.