Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- 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.

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty will make his first Iowa trip as a potential presidential candidate tomorrow to deliver a speech, fueling speculation he is preparing to run.

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is in the state that holds the nation’s first presidential caucus a day later, while former New York Governor George Pataki is scheduled to stop there on Nov. 10. Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential nominee, also is considering an Iowa visit.

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, according to the Des Moines Register.

“It is the natural course of events here in Iowa,” said Matt Strawn, chairman of the state’s Republican Party. “Iowa Republicans will certainly look favorably on those national Republican figures who come in and help us win back the legislature, help us win back the governor’s office” in the 2010 election.

Republicans are trying to build on victories in gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey in this week’s off-year elections.

Fresh Face

While Pawlenty lacks the star power of Palin, who earlier this year received a $1.25 million book advance, he presents himself as a fresh face who has won elections in a state historically dominated by Democrats.

His Iowa visit follows a summer crisscrossing the nation to speak to Republicans, introducing himself as the hockey- playing son of a truck driver who grew up in Minnesota near South St. Paul meat-packing plants.

Pawlenty, 48, says his upbringing helped spur his push for Republicans to be the “party of Sam’s Club, not the country club.” His reference is to the Sam’s Club chain of warehouse stores that operate throughout the U.S.

He recently gained attention by endorsing a Conservative Party candidate over a Republican in a closely watched congressional election on Nov. 3 in Upstate New York. The Conservative Party candidate, Doug Hoffman, 59, lost to Democrat Bill Owens, 60, after Republican nominee Dede Scozzafava, 49, dropped out of the race the weekend before the election.

Definition Effort

“What he is clearly trying to do is define himself as one of the conservatives,” John Feehery, a Republican political strategist in Washington, said of Pawlenty. “His consultants are telling him that he has to go where the votes are in the Republican primary, which is the conservatives.”

Pawlenty has formed his own political action committee, Freedom First PAC, to boost his image. He appeared Nov. 4 in Minneapolis at an inaugural fundraising dinner for the PAC, an event that featured remarks by actors Jon Voight, John Ratzenberger and Kelsey Grammer.

One of the PAC’s co-chairs is former Minnesota congressman Vin Weber, an early supporter of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney in the 2008 Republican presidential race. Another is Morgan Stanley Vice Chairman William Strong, a top fundraiser for former President George W. Bush and Senator John McCain of Arizona, the Republican White House nominee last year.

Pawlenty, considered by McCain as a possible running mate, joins other possible 2012 candidates with PACs. Huckabee, 54, has the Huck PAC, Palin, 45, created SarahPAC and Romney, 62, opened the Free and Strong America PAC.

Audition Season

Pawlenty’s keynote speech at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines is the first high-profile event of the early audition season. The dinner event offers the governor, who is not seeking re-election in 2010, a chance to introduce himself to Republican activists.

Obama’s re-election campaign will have an Iowa presence this month as well, when Vice President Joe Biden speaks Nov. 21 at a Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner in Des Moines.

“I haven’t made any decisions about what I’m going to do after being governor,” Pawlenty said on a Nov. 4 conference call with Iowa reporters.

Pawlenty spent time in Iowa in 2008 as a McCain surrogate. Strawn said Pawlenty is best known in northern Iowa, which shares media markets with Minnesota.

A USA Today/Gallup Poll conducted Oct. 31-Nov. 1 showed 32 percent of Republicans nationwide would seriously consider voting for Pawlenty for president. Huckabee, Romney, Palin and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, 66, of Georgia, all scored higher than him in the survey of 301 Republicans that had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 7 percentage points.

Sex Joke

Elected to Minnesota’s House of Representatives in 1992, Pawlenty won the governorship in 2002. He was re-elected in 2006.

One gaffe likely to be reprised should he run for president occurred during Minnesota’s traditional Governor’s Fishing Opener in May 2008.

In an effort to be humorous during an interview with a Minneapolis radio station, he praised his wife, Mary, for her willingness to fish with him and watch hockey games. He also told the program’s host: “I jokingly say, ‘Now, if I could only get her to have sex with me.’”

Mary Pawlenty later said her husband was being a prankster.

To contact the reporter on this story: John McCormick in Chicago at Jmccormick16@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 6, 2009 00:01 EST