By Ed Fletcher, Sacramento Bee

The Placer County Republican Party is taking a big-tent approach to the local candidate endorsement process by inviting the party members to a new one-day selection convention.

The Aug. 18 event replaces the normal process, which limited participation to the 27 elected members of the county’s Republican central committee. The convention will be used to select the candidates the party will endorse for the Nov. 6 election. Those local races are officially nonpartisan, but endorsements are typical from Republicans and Democrats.

“It has never been done before, to my knowledge,” Placer County Republican Central Committee Chairman Jeff Atteberry said of the event. “It will bring a whole bunch more people into the process.”

But Jon Fleischman, a conservative blogger and former state Republican Party executive director, questioned whether the delegates will add new voices or simply be pawns of existing players.

Under the plan, each central committee member can appoint up to 10 delegates.

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