Just one percentage point now separates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in Texas. According to the second day of our exclusive 11 News Belo Texas poll, Clinton leads Obama, 46-percent to 45-percent. Because we have included an additional night of polling in our statistics, the margin of error has dropped to plus or minus 3.6 percent.

Data provided by our polling firm, Austin-based Public Strategies, Inc., indicates that Obama has done better among likely voters each night of our three-night poll. We will continue to interview likely voters at random each night through the election.

On the Republican side, John McCain continues to pull away with the race. He now has 60-percent of Texas Republicans behind him, while Mike Huckabee’s support has dropped two points to 27-percent. Texas Congressman Ron Paul’s support holds steady at 7-percent. The margin of error for Republican races is plus or minus 4.6-percent.

Looking deeper into the poll numbers, it becomes clear that Clinton holds a strong lead among people who describe themselves as loyal Democrats: 54 to 38-percent. Among independents, Obama has an edge: 56 to 37-percent.

However, “experience” is not one of the leading issues for voters in the Democratic primary. Our poll finds that, among people who describe themselves as likely to vote Democratic, experience is one of the least important traits they are looking for. Behind “understands the problems of people like you” (which Clinton beats Obama on by 20 points), “ethics and honesty” (which Obama beats Clinton on by 20 points), “strong leadership” (Clinton over Obama by 7), and “most likely to change Washington” (Obama 74-percent, Clinton 19-percent). “Experience” finishes fifth on the list.

People who say that “experience” is the most important trait, plan to vote for Clinton at a rate of 93 to 5.

David Iannelli of Public Strategies is conducting the poll for 11 News. After reviewing the data, he says it’s becoming apparent that Clinton’s strategy of selling her “experience” has connected well with voters who believe that is an important trait – but only 12-percent of voters believe it’s the most important trait.

“While they respect her knowledge and her experience on the issues,” Iannelli said, “I think they’re voting more on character traits. Obama has done a good job of positioning himself as close to her on the issues.”

When it comes to “character traits,” Iannelli says Clinton does best when he asks voters which candidate “understands problems of people like you.”

The problem for Clinton is that she has been unable to make that a breakaway issue in this campaign.

Meanwhile, early voting totals continue to break all records. Democratic turnout is still outpacing Republican turnout at a heavy pace. Whereas our first two days of polling indicated that early voting Democrats were casting ballots evenly between Clinton and Obama, when you add in the third day of data, Obama pulls ahead with 53-percent of the early vote to Clinton’s 47.