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This is the third of three blog posts with audio files from the leading Democratic contenders in the U.S. Senate campaign. Up now is former state Sen. Cal Cunningham.

Click here for his web site.

You can find out more about Cunningham and the two other leading candidates from this stoy (click here).

Gary Pearce, a longtime political operative and analyst, said Cunningham had a great "between the commas" line. That is, when newspaper people write about someone we usually follow a template that goes: "So-and-so, a X who did Y." In Cunningham's case, that reads, "Cunningham, a former state senator and Iraq war veteran..."

Never mind that his state senate service lasted only one term. Cunningham did earn a bronze star in Iraq.

I asked Cunningham the obvious first: why did he get back in the race only weeks after he said he was getting out. Along with the talk about getting lots of phone calls from people he'd met around the state, Cunningham allows as how the DSCC was a factor in getting him into the race and that Rep. Etheridge getting out cleared what he calls "a path to victory:

When Cunningham ran for the state senate in 2000, he pledged not to raise any new taxes. He then voted for a budget that had new taxes in it. As Cunningham explained, he only got one vote on the budget that did other things he had pledged to do, so he was faced with a choice of breaking the no-new-taxes pledge or going back on his word about other things:

I asked all three candidates about the ongoing health care debate. Here's what Cunningham had to say:

I asked all three candidates about the war in Afghanistan. Here's what Cunningham had to say: