It’s that time of the year again — election season.

Wait. No it’s not.

It’s an easy mistake to make though, given the amount of political activity going on in Iowa right now. With Gov. Vilsack apparently sticking to his pledge not to seek a third term, the gubernatorial race is off like a shot — if that shot is from a gun that shoots really slow bullets, anyway.

Rep. Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, was recently re-elected to the House of Representatives; he announced his candidacy for the position last week. At least we got five months of actual governing out of him before he went back to the campaign trail. Democratic candidate Ed Fallon has been running for Governor since 2003 or one year before being returned to the Iowa House.

These aren’t the only offenders for this race. Secretary of State Chet Culver, D-Iowa, has been all but officially running for at least a year now, and Republican businessman, Bob Vander Plaats, announced his candidacy before Nussle did.

And as if the open governor’s position for 2006 wasn’t bad enough, the lack of any incumbent for the big job in 2008 has not gone unnoticed by presidential hopefuls.

John Kerry and John Edwards apparently can’t get enough of Iowa. Both of them have been back since narrowly losing the state last year. Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., has been talking to Iowans about his run. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., big shot that she is, has been bringing Iowans to her instead of coming here. Heck, even Gov. Tom Vilsack, D-Iowa, has seen fit to visit our state from time to time.

The Republican side isn’t much better. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., has been through the state, pimping his book and spreading rumors about a potential run. Att. Gen. John Ashcroft is coming soon to energize social conservatives.

Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., must hope he succeeds, having signaled his intent with a recent trip to the state. Sen. George Allen, R-Va., a former staunch opponent of ethanol subsidies, appears to have had a sudden change of heart.

Come on, people; we were in non-stop campaign mode for more than a year. We want our normal denture and retirement home commercial airwaves back for more than seven months before you replace them with attack ads and “issue” ads where every issue seems to be how bad one of the candidates is. Although we value our first-in-the-nation status for the party nominations, we also value our years away from politicians.

Focus a little more on doing your jobs and a little less on campaigning for new ones. After all, we are Iowans and we say so.