Bill Richardson is on a two-day campaign swing through Iowa, and according to the Des Moines Register, he will be going up on tv here next week.

I don’t recall any of the candidates going up on tv this early last cycle. Dean put up some tv ads around June 2003, and at that time political ads before Labor Day were unheard of. The Register says Mitt Romney ran some ads here earlier this year, but I didn’t see any of those because we pretty much only watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.

Join me after the jump for some thoughts about Richardson’s strategy.

According to today’s report, Richardson’s first two ads will start airing next Monday: a 60-second biographical piece, and a 30-second spot focusing on his experience, including foreign policy.

Although the campaign is not revealing how much they spent on this buy,

“We’re doing a higher ad buy here,” said Richardson, who spoke at the Carroll County Democrats annual “Give ‘Em Hell Harry” dinner. “I want to introduce myself to the voters of Iowa. We’re going to compete here.”

The newspaper continues,

Aides hope the ads will help separate Richardson from “celebrity” Democratic candidates New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. Tom Reynolds, Richardson’s Iowa spokesman, said Richardson will run a grass-roots, “traditional Iowa caucus campaign.”

Richardson appeared yesterday in Denison and Carroll.

Today he will be in Pella, Cedar Rapids, Cedar Falls, and finally in Des Moines for the Polk County Democrats’ Spring Dinner.

Unfortunately, I will be unable to attend any of these events. If someone out there sees Richardson today, please post a diary here afterwards.

I am supporting Edwards, and I think Edwards is in a great position to win Iowa. But if Richardson is going to compete here, he certainly has a lot of upside potential. I am not a fan of Richardson’s economic policies, but some conservative Democrats won’t be put off by that.

Being the only governor in the race will help him among those who feel more comfortable supporting a governor than a senator. Also, I believe he and Kucinich are the only Catholics in the race, and that may help him in some parts of the state.

He seems to be trying to copy Tom Vilsack’s strategy by calling for immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq:

“I would get out of Iraq if I were president today. … I’d get out by the end of this year,” he said. “What I would do is use a strength I could bring. It’s called diplomacy.”

I don’t know if people will buy Richardson as the anti-war candidate, but it makes sense for him to play up his diplomatic experience in this context.

If he wants to compete for the undecided voters, he’s going to have to come up with more specifics on domestic policy, though. For example, as far as I understand he says he will provide universal health care with no new taxes. How is that going to work? Edwards has set the bar very high on this issue.

Share your thoughts on Richardson and his potential in Iowa in the comments section.