CORPUS CHRISTI - The political dance known as the 'Texas Two-Step' put the state Democratic Party into the national spotlight during the 2008 presidential election, and delegates to this weekend's state convention are gearing up for a fight over whether to keep dancing in 2012. The hybrid system of awarding some presidential convention delegates through a primary vote and others through a series of caucuses held on primary night became contentious in the contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Clinton won the primary vote, but Obama outmaneuvered her in the caucuses and walked away with the most pledged Texas delegates to the national nominating convention: 99-94. The state fight over those delegates continued from the March primary until a week before the 2008 state convention when Clinton conceded the nomination to Obama. In some ways, the fight reignited Thursday morning during a pre-convention meeting in Corpus Christi in a sometimes-heated discussion over whether to keep the system or start allocating presidential delegates based only on primary results. Rosalie Weisfeld of McAllen argued to the temporary rules committee that the hybrid system is unfair to people who simply cannot attend a primary-night caucus, such as people who voted early because of travel or work or overseas military duty. David Bradley of Dallas, however, said the process debate is nothing more than a re-fight of the 2008 election. 'Anyone who argues that we're discussing delegate selection for any reason other than the candidate who got the most votes in the primary got fewer delegates is being disingenuous,' Bradley said. Party stalwarts like the caucus process because it attracts people willing to work for the party and its candidates. The turnout usually is low because presidential contests normally are settled by the Texas primary, but the 2008 turnout was a record because of the ongoing Clinton-Obama fight. Many caucuses turned into chaos. Caucuses that normally had a handful of people in attendance were overrun by hundreds. A fight over the process was averted in 2008 when Democratic Chairman Boyd Richie agreed to appoint a special study commission. Surveys by that commission found Texas Democrats almost evenly divided on whether to keep the hybrid system or go with a system of allocating delegates based on primary vote results. Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, who headed the commission, said the hybrid system is the only one in the nation and only operates under a waiver from the Democratic National Committee. West said he cannot get the DNC to say whether that waiver will be granted again. Weisfeld said that is why the convention should move toward changing the system: 'They're sending a clear indication to us that the system needs to be changed.' Joy Demark of Houston noted that the national convention threatened to refuse to seat several state delegations in 2008, then surrendered to seat them. Demark said by the 2012 convention Texas officially will have more population, more congressional seats and more clout and still be unpopular with the national party. 'They're going to trash Texas anyway,' Demark said. The temporary rules committee approved a report of West's committee that recommended keeping the hybrid system but making changes to lower the potential for caucus chaos. Nonetheless, some delegates are hoping to bring the fight to the floor of the full convention on Saturday. 'The Democratic Party is treating voters in an unequal manner,' said Linda Burgess of Austin. 'I don't want to see our state pay for a (primary) election and then have a private party in a closed private party setting change the vote.' rg.ratcliffe@chron.com XXX - End of Story3D 