• by David Goetzl , August 14, 2007

The expected TV barrage by Hillary Clinton's campaign for the White House begins today. The candidate will start airing a spot in Iowa, five months before the state holds caucuses that mark the formal beginning of the race for president.

In the spot called "Invisible," the New York senator takes the tack that regular Americans are "invisible to their government." Clinton is prepared to prove they are "not invisible to me" when she takes office. She cites individuals with no health insurance, single moms looking for child care and soldiers struggling at war as among those alienated from Washington.

" ... I never thought I would see that our soldiers who serve in Iraq and Afghanistan would be treated as though they were invisible as well," she says in the TV ad.

The visuals include rolling farmlands and Clinton walking with a farmer, speaking to a crowd and hugging supporters.

As of early July, six candidates had begun running spots as Clinton waited in the wings. Republican Mitt Romney, who won an Iowa straw poll over the weekend, led the pack by far, according to Nielsen. Fellow Democratic contender Barack Obama hit the air in Iowa on June 27.

In a recent report, a JP Morgan analyst wrote that 2008 presidential contenders had raised nearly $300 million as a group, including $140 million in the second quarter.