WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Television ads featuring Rep. Duncan Hunter began airing this week in the nation's first-in-the-nation caucus state of Iowa, just days before the California Republican officially kicked off his presidential campaign Thursday.

The ads, paid for by Hunter's Peace Through Strength PAC, began airing Tuesday in the Des Moines media market, according to TNS Media Intelligence/Campaign Media Analysis Group, CNN's consultant on political ad spending. The PAC first started running TV ads last month in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the site of Hunter's campaign announcement event, earning the congressman the distinction of being the first 2008 presidential hopeful to hit the airwaves with paid advertising.

Hunter appears on-camera in the three ads addressing border security and trade with China, but does not specifically promote his presidential campaign, which is prohibited by federal election law for a PAC ad.

A Hunter spokesman, Roy Tyler, confirms the Iowa ad run, but did not provide specific ad buy information. Tyler says that the PAC ads will stop airing shortly after Hunter's announcement, and that a new round of ads paid for by Hunter's presidential campaign will take their place. The presidential ads will begin airing in Hunter's home turf of San Diego, but will also spread to other "targeted" areas throughout the country.

In the 2004 presidential campaign, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean was the first presidential hopeful to air television ads, but those ads did not air until June 2003.