This year is a good one to pay close attention to the Federal Election Commission. Not only have the six commissioners rendered some startling decisions and deadlocked on key issues, the terms of two Democrats and a Republican will expire this May. "There's no way to know whether another fresh set of commissioners will adjust course yet again," reports Campaigns & Elections' Politics Magazine.

One upcoming decision that will be of import is how outside groups can coordinate with candidates. The courts have told the FEC to rewrite part of a rule that restricted certain ads by outside groups if they ran within 90 days of a congressional election, or from 120 days before a presidential primary until the date of the general election. The court said the FEC's interpretation was too narrow.

The commission will issue opinions to flesh out its recent rules on bundled contributions to lawmakers, must finish rules guiding the use of private planes by candidates and plans to pursue a public dialogue about making its practices more user-friendly and transparent. All of this while tackling ideological tensions on the panel.

Split votes among the Federal Election Commission's six members have happened with increasing frequency in recent months, leading the regulated political community in the dark about whether campaign finance rules for the 2010 congressional election and the 2012 presidential race will be significantly different.

The deadlocks, which have largely been along party lines, have been over: rules on contributions to independent political organizations, such as Section 527 groups; limits on expenditures by campaign supporters; requirements for detailed identification of contributors to campaigns; definition of personal funds used by a candidate to finance a campaign; and restrictions on embezzling money from campaign funds.