Senate's balance of power will come down to Midwest elections

FOX 32 NEWS - Whoever wins the White House Tuesday will need cooperation from Congress, and not just to enact new laws.

There's an empty seat on the Supreme Court that could tip the court's balance of power. The new President's nominee needs approval from the Senate, and control of the Senate is up for grabs.

Illinois is in the center of a handful of states that could hold the key to the U.S. Senate. Whichever party wins control, it will likely be by just one or two seats.

The Tri-State Toll Road traverses part of the political battlefield, from Indiana where Democratic former Sen. Evan Bayh and Republican Todd Young vie for an open seat; to Illinois, where Democratic Rep. Tammy Duckworth seeks to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Mark Kirk; to Wisconsin, where Republican Sen. Ron Johnson is in a grudge match with Democrat Russ Feingold, the former senator Johnson ousted six years ago. 

In the Show Me State to our southwest is one of the closest contests. Missouri's Republican Sen. Roy Blunt, a longtime fixture on Capitol Hill whose wife and son are lobbyists, faces Democratic challenger Jason Kander, a veteran of Afghanistan who, after Blunt attacked him on gun rights, aired an ad in which, blindfolded, he assembled an AR 15.