The JAG officer who pioneered an effort with the U.S. Department of Justice to prosecute contractor misconduct in Iraq will speak at the Democratic Party's county convention Saturday.

Capt. Cal Cunningham, who recently returned from Iraq after his second yearlong mobilization in four years, will deliver the keynote address shortly after the convention opens at 10 a.m. Saturday in the Moore County Agricultural Center in Carthage. Registration will begin at 9:30 a.m.

Morgan Jackson, a Moore County native and longtime Democratic Party activist, helped to secure Cunningham as speaker, according to Mary Alice Wicker, who is handling convention arrangements.

In 2008, Cunningham served as senior trial counsel with the Multi-National Corps-Iraq, where he led the first court-martial of a contractor under military law since 1968. He was awarded the Bronze Star for his service and will be recognized in May by the Army chief of staff with the General Douglas MacArthur Leadership Award.

Cunningham is a native of Lexington and a paratrooper with the U.S. Army, Judge Advocate General's Corps.

In his private law practice, Cunningham is a litigation attorney with the Winston-Salem office of Kilpatrick Stockton. In 2005 he served with the 18th Airborne Corps as a special assistant U.S. attorney, prosecuting crimes committted at Fort Bragg. He was recently honored by the North Carolina Bar for volunteering his legal services to victims of domestic violence.

In addition to a law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Cunningham's education includes a master of science degree from the London School of Economics. He also holds a bachelor's degree with honors from UNC-Chapel Hill. At UNC, he served as student body president and later as chief justice of the Student Suypreme Court. In early 2007, he traveled to Europe as a Marshall Memorial Fellow and met with European government leaders on issues of counterterrorism and Islamic extremism.

Cunningham became one of North Carolina's youngest state senators in 2000, when he was elected to represent the district encompassing Davidson, Rowan and Iredell counties. He served as vice chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and on the Senate Education Committee. He did not run for reelection after redistricting in 2002 and has since served on the Executive Committee of the North Carolina Democratic Party.

A governor's appointee to the Davidson County Community College Board of Trustees, he is a public member of the North Carolina Banking Commission. He has served as an elder in the First Presbyterian Church in Lexington.

Cunningham and his wife, Elizabeth, ran their sixth marathon at Lake Tahoe in the fall of 2007. They have a daughter, Caroline, 7, and a son, Will, 5, and a golden retriever named Davidson.

During the business portion of the convention, Moore County Democrats will elect officers, including a new chairman to succeed Brian Deaton, who is retiring after serving two years. The Democrats will also elect delegates to their district and state conventions.

Contact Florence Gilkeson at 947-4962 or by e-mail at florence@thepilot.com.