One in a series of occasional stories about California voters.

LAKEPORT – The license plates on the front and rear of Don Whitney's Chevy truck, parked outside VFW Post 2337 in Clearlake, tell a big part of his story: They are DMV specials, custom-made for California veterans awarded the Purple Heart.

The actual medal he had made into a money clip.

War stories abound in this rolling, 1,327-square-mile county northwest of Sacramento, home to one of the state's highest concentrations of civilians who are veterans. Like many vets here, Whitney gravitated to Lake County after the Vietnam War in search of cheaper housing, a little land and some scenery.

He found it, as did hundreds more veterans, settling into the hills and small towns that hug the shores of Clear Lake, touted as California's largest natural freshwater lake.

Veterans are one group of voters both presidential candidates would love to win over. There's Republican Sen. John McCain, a decorated war hero who wants to finish the business in Iraq. And Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, who opposed the invasion and promises to begin withdrawing troops from a war many Americans didn't support from the get-go.

There is no consensus among veterans here, just as there is no consensus among Americans. But this is Democrat country, and that tug is evident among Don Whitney and his buddies at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2337.

"John McCain's a nice person, but I'll tell you what. I wouldn't vote for him," said Whitney, 66, who served in the Army in Vietnam, where he was wounded in 1968. "It'll be four more years of Bush."

Whitney is a registered Republican, but Obama's opposition to the war and his promises of change resonate with a Vietnam veteran who fears his country is veering toward a similar, unwinnable calamity in Iraq.

A county of veterans

War resonates deeply here. In August, hundreds turned out in Clearlake for a motorcade carrying the body of Pfc. Ivan Wilson, a 22-year-old serviceman killed in July in Afghanistan and the first to die from Lake County in the current war.

At the VFW post, bustling with activity by 10 a.m. on a Wednesday, Elmer "Tootie" Maxson – a 72-year-old Korean War veteran – says he identifies with Obama and his ties to south Chicago, where the candidate worked as a community organizer. Tootie, as he likes to be called, worked for years in south Chicago at a textile plating plant.

"He (Obama) will get my vote, you bet," said Maxson, browsing the VFW's garage-sale items that will raise money for new linoleum in the meeting room. "He wants to go at rich people and help the poor people out. It seems like he's more for the poor people."

The ongoing economic slide has taken its toll in Lake County, where the poverty rate is in the top 10 among California's 40 largest counties. Government is the largest employer in this county of about 64,000 residents, who have voted for the Democratic candidate in the last five presidential races (the county went with Reagan in 1984). Among registered voters, more than 43 percent are Democrats and about 31 percent Republicans.

Struggling with the downturn

While not as hard-hit as other regions, which experienced building booms, then busts, the median home price here is tumbling. Along Main Street in Lakeport, the county seat with about 5,000 residents, a real estate office devotes two blackboards in its front display window to prices "slashed" by foreclosures, including a four-bedroom, two-bath home for $224,900.

A tattered economy and the war are the most pressing issues for 64-year-old Hugh Mackey, a Vietnam veteran who owns Mackey Tire Centers in Lakeport. A thoughtful and reflective man, Mackey said he believes Obama "stands for strength" and would lead by diplomacy, whereas McCain would "come in with a big fist." As for the Iraq war, Mackey believes the country is perilously close to a repeat of Vietnam.

"I really believe we went there to topple Saddam Hussein, take care of that problem and put our nose in the middle of those oil countries," said Mackey, whose wife is the former mayor of Lakeport, a city councilwoman and county supervisor. "And that embarrasses me as an American veteran."

Call The Bee's Marjie Lundstrom, (916) 321-1055.