"It is harvest season in Iowa. For Republicans who want to challenge President Barack Obama in 2012, though, it is time to start planting seeds," Bloomberg reports.
Tim Pawlenty, Mike Huckabee, and George Pataki all have planned visits before the end of the year. Sarah Palin is considering one as well.
"If it all seems early -- the next presidential election is three years away -- consider that Huckabee, who won his party's 2008 Iowa caucuses, had been to the state five times by this point in 2005."