Edwards, Clinton, and Obama have invested millions in Iowa televsion ads.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Less than one month before the Iowa caucuses, several presidential candidates are opening up their wallets and targeting Hawkeye State voters in a television ad blitz that so far has cost more than $13 million.

Most of the money is being spent by the three Democratic frontrunners, who view a win in Iowa as important in the march to their party’s presidential nomination.

Leading the pack is Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, who has run nearly 8,000 television ads this year at a cost of more than $4 million, according to an analysis conducted by TNS Media Intelligence/CMAG, CNN’s consultant on television ad spending. Meanwhile, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton has spent $3 million on 5,100-plus ads, and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards has devoted $1.3 million to air more than 2,000 ads.

In the race for the Republican presidential nomination, new polling shows that former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is leading in Iowa even though former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has saturated the airwaves with campaign ads. Romney has invested $4.1 million to run more than 7,000 ads in the Hawkeye State, while Huckabee’s television advertising buys has been negligible. Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson trails a distant second to Romney in Iowa in terms of ad buys with around 1,050 campaign commercials aired at a cost of $600,000.

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Edwards and Obama are both going on the air with ads in South Carolina.

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) — Sen. Barack Obama will make his South Carolina television ad debut Wednesday with a spot that promotes his experience as a community organizer and civil rights attorney.

The 30-second ad, "Hope and Change," features Obama sitting in front of a bay window in mock television interview style offering a similar message to ads already running in Iowa and New Hampshire.

"You know, hope and change haven’t just been campaign slogans for me … they’ve been the causes of my life," the Illinois Democrat says in the ad.

Meanwhile, John Edwards will start airing the ad "Thanksgiving" Wednesday — his second TV spot in South Carolina.

The ad depicts Edwards in front of the pink house where he was born in Seneca, South Carolina. The former North Carolina senator narrates: "For this place where I was born, and all of you, who have welcomed us into your homes and hearts. Thank you."

The campaign said similar holiday-themed ads will run in Iowa and New Hampshire "through the holiday," although an Edwards’ aide declined to give an exact date.

– CNN South Carolina Producer Peter Hamby

Edwards is launching his first ad in Iowa.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Presidential hopeful John Edwards launched its first television ad in Iowa Thursday titled "Heroes," as part of the North Carolina Democrat’s "American Heroes Week."

While Edwards' closest competitors in Iowa, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-New York, and Barack Obama, D-Illinois, have been airing television ads in the Hawkeye State for months, the former North Carolina senator has waited until the last months of the primary campaign "for when people are making up their minds" and there are "still large a number of caucus goers that are undecided," said Jonathan Prince, Edwards' deputy campaign manager. Obama and Clinton also have a substantial cash advantage over Edwards to spend on expensive television advertising.

Edwards will hit campaign stops in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and New Orleans as part of the heroes-theme week of campaigning tied to the ad, which shows a montage of everyday American "heroes" and Edwards discussing how he plans to "stand up for working men and women," he says, if he's elected the next president.

– CNN Political Assignment Editor Katy Byron