Election year has finally arrived, well after the beginning of a turbulent and unpredictable election season, and voting begins on Tuesday in the Iowa Republicans caucuses.

Instead of rounding up the week's news, which again was in short supply this week, we look forward to next year with a roundup of the stories we think may be the biggest in 2012 in state government and politics. Happy new year!

When it comes to missing votes, nobody among Floridas congressional delegation has done it better than Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami Gardens.

According to Govtrack.us, Wilson, a freshman lawmaker, has missed 117 of 948possible votes since recording her first vote in January 2011.

Wilson, who missed time due to gall bladder surgery, missed 12 percent of the votes taken since she took office, which places her sixth highest among all members of Congress.

As Florida voters begin to focus on the state's pivotal GOP presidential primary at the end of January, the leading contenders are former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, according to a poll by TelOpinion Research.

Romney and Gingrich are essentially in a statistical dead heat, with Romney leading with 27 percent of the vote to Gingrich's 26, according to the telephone survey of 780 Republican voters, conducted from Dec. 15-19.

An advocacy group will ask the state Supreme Court to reject a regulatory decision that would allow Florida Power & Light and Progress Energy Florida to collect about $282 million from customers next year for nuclear-power projects.

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy has notified the state Public Service Commission that it's taking the unusual step of appealing an order that allows the utilities to collect money for work on future or existing nuclear plants.

The Florida Legislature's battles over expanded gambling in the state are spreading into new ground: barrel racing on cloverleaf patterns in Gadsden County, which supporters hope will open the door to lucrative slot machine business in the rural North Florida area.

Under a bill now before the state Senate, SB1376, sponsored by Sen. Dennis Jones, R-Seminole, cloverleaf barrel racing would be not be permitted. Instead, quarter horse racing will be required to be conducted on a straight path on a traditional oval or straight track.

"Events are in the saddle and ride mankind."

In describing 2011, few cliches seem more appropriate. For in this past year, we Americans seemed to lose control of our destiny, as events seemed to be in the saddle.