Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said she will run for reelection to her House seat this fall.

Rep. Brad Ellsworth (D-Ind.) continues to base his ad campaign on his time as a sheriff. The congressman's second TV spot of the Senate race, released Wednesday, even goes so far as to feature footage of Ellsworth in his Vanderburgh County Sheriff's uniform. His first TV ad, titled "At Stake," featured Ellsworth talking about him time as sheriff and was notable because he didn't mention serving in Congress.

The new ad, titled "Think," will air in two-thirds of the state, according to a spokeswoman for Ellsworth. The ad is airing in "areas where voters are less familiar with Brad than they are in Evansville, Terre Haute and Louisville. It includes both cable and broadcast," Liz Farrar said in an e-mail.

The two-term congressman faces former Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) in November. 

The Washington-based firm Dixon/Davis Media Group is producing Ellsworth's campaign ads. 

.

Republicans have a five-point lead over Democrats in a generic congressional ballot, the latest Quinnipiac poll shows.

Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) joined the newly-founded Tea Party caucus late Tuesday in the hope of boosting his prospects in the GOP Senate primary.

The caucus, which was founded by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) as an "informal group" on July 15, is set to meet Wednesday for the first time.

Tiahrt trails Rep. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) significantly in the race to succeed Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.). In a SurveyUSA poll released Monday, 50 percent of respondents said they supported Moran and 36 percent backed Tiahrt.

"The Tea Party Caucus will help us amplify our message inside the halls of Congress and make sure the people’s voices are heard and not ignored by the Majority Party," Tiahrt said in a statement.

Moran also joined the caucus, but didn't announce his decision publicly because he's attending the funeral of his mother on Wednesday.

The group’s goal is to "promote Americans' call for fiscal responsibility, adherence to the Constitution, and limited government," Bachmann wrote in a letter to Rep. Robert Brady (D-Pa.), who chairs the House Administration Committee.

Since it was formed the caucus has attracted GOP Conference Chairman Mike Pence (Ind.), National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (Texas) and Reps. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) and John Carter (R-Texas), according to the House website. Fox News reported that Reps. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), Dan Burton (R-Ind.) and Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) also joined the caucus.

[Updated at 4:19 p.m. An earlier version of this post stated incorrectly that Moran hadn't joined the Tea Party caucus.]

A new Quinnipiac University poll finds President Obama’s approval rating at the lowest point of his presidency. The poll found 44 percent of voters approve of the job Obama is doing, while 48 percent disapprove.

Among independents the gap is even wider — 52 percent disapprove to just 38 percent who approve of Obama’s performance.

A Q-poll in May found 48 percent of voters approving of the president, while 43 disapproved. Voters disapprove of the president’s handling of almost every major issue polled, from the economy to the Gulf oil spill to illegal immigration. Voters disapprove of Obama’s handling of the economy 56 percent to 39 percent. On illegal immigration, voters disapprove by a margin of 58-30 percent.

Against an unnamed Republican candidate for president in 2012, Obama is behind 39 percent to 36 percent, with 13 percent of respondents saying it would depend on who the GOP candidate is. 

“In politics a month is a lifetime, and we have 28 months until November of 2012. But politicians with reelect numbers at 40 percent bear watching,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. 

One piece of good news for the president out of these latest numbers — by a margin of 42 percent to 32 percent, voters said Obama has been a better president than George W. Bush.

In a surprise on Tuesday, the former chief of staff to retiring Rep. John Linder (R-Ga.) finished first in a crowded Republican primary, but it wasn’t enough to avoid an August runoff. 

Rob Woodall won 37 percent of the vote with radio host Jody Hice coming in second at 26 percent. State Rep. Clay Cox won’t even make it into the August runoff, finishing third with 20 percent of the vote.  

Cox was considered the frontrunner in the 7th District, though most observers thought a runoff was likely. Cox was a favorite of Tea Party groups in the state and had the backing of the state’s GOP establishment, including Gov. Sonny Perdue and state House Speaker David Ralston.

Cox was in Washington, D.C., last week for a fundraiser at the Capitol Hill Club.  

Hice, a former minister, stirred controversy earlier this week with a billboard campaign referencing President Obama. The billboards asked, “Had enough of Obama’s change?” The “c” in the word change was replaced with a hammer and sickle. 

Linder officially endorsed his former chief of staff Woodall in April. 

Support of the Fair Tax turned out to be a major issue in the primary, even though every one of the Republicans running voiced support for it. The candidates squabbled over who was the strongest backer of the tax proposal, which is based on consumption rather than income.

Linder co-authored a book on the fair tax with conservative radio host Neal Boortz.  

Woodall and Hice will head to an Aug. 10 runoff. 

Georgia Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson kept his congressional career on an even keel Tuesday. 

Johnson — who questioned whether Guam could “tip over and capsize” — won his primary against former DeKalb County chief Vernon Jones and DeKalb County Commissioner Connie Stokes. 

Johnson got 55 percent of vote, according to unofficial results. The Associated Press called the race for him. 

Addressing Adm. Robert Willard, who commands the Navy’s Pacific Fleet, during a hearing in March, Johnson made a tipping motion with his hands and said sternly, “My fear is that the whole island [of Guam] will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize.”
Willard paused and said: “We don’t anticipate that.”

The video of the hearing went viral — getting more than 2.5 million views on YouTube — and caused Johnson some embarrassment.

Moreover, Jones and Stokes questioned Johnson’s work ethic and called him an absentee member. There was evidence to back up their claims — Johnson even missed votes on Monday, telling Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) that he had to “personally attend to matters in my district.”

But Johnson had the backing of President Obama and raised and spent significantly more than his opponents. He even released a catchy campaign song, although it was later taken down from his website for unknown reasons. 

Rep. John Barrow survived a primary scare Tuesday.

The Georgia Democrat easily defeated former state Sen. Regina Thomas (D), taking 62 percent of the vote with 242 of 285 precincts reporting. The Associated Press declared him the winner.

Barrow was under fire for voting against healthcare reform in March. His “no” vote so infuriated his fellow Democrats on Capitol Hill that only 10 members gave to his campaign this year, down from 22 in the 2008 cycle. 

Thomas hoped to capitalize on Barrow’s controversial vote and her demographic advantage in the primary for the heavily African-American district. But she failed to raise enough money to be competitive.

Moreover, she was taking her second crack at Barrow, having lost to him by more than 50 points in 2008. Washington-based Democratic strategists anticipated Barrow would survive Tuesday’s vote. 

Republican Ray McKinney leads the pack vying to challenge Barrow, but that primary could go to a runoff.

Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.) will face his second runoff in three months in August after finishing just shy of the 50 percent needed to win Tuesday’s primary outright. 

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Graves led state Sen. Lee Hawkins 48.8 percent to 26.8 percent. 

Graves won a special election runoff June 8 for the right to serve out the term of former Rep. Nathan Deal (R), who resigned to focus on his gubernatorial campaign.  

Graves defeated Hawkins in that June 8 runoff, but a primary was still necessary to gain the nomination for the fall to serve a full two-year term.  

Graves was one of six Republican candidates in Tuesday’s primary. He had strong backing from area Tea Party groups and won the endorsement of The Club for Growth. 

Graves and Hawkins will square off again on Aug. 10.