Control of Congress: A Seven-Seat Affair
This year's elections will be decided in local communities, where campaigns will be won and lost largely on local issues. But these local races will have a widespread national impact. Control of both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate is up for grabs -- the Democrats control the Senate by a single vote and the GOP runs the House with a six-seat majority.

The party that controls the two houses will have the ability to shape the national debate and much of the legislative agenda for at least the next two years. Below are some of the critical issues that the next Congress will need to grapple with and how who controls Congress may affect that debate.