Without the slightest hesitation, the News-Press is coming out early with its endorsements in the regional U.S. Congressional races this fall. We strongly support the re-election of both U.S. Rep. Jim Moran in the 8th District and U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly in the 11th District covering the greater Falls Church region of Northern Virginia.

Both face inexperienced arch-conservative foes whose policy preferences bear little resemblance to some of the more reasonable Republicans that have represented this region over the years.

It is going to be a very tumultuous next two months in America. The continuing economic malaise has thrown all the cards high into the air as the November mid-term elections loom.

While the latest Gallup Poll shows that sentiment among likely voters has the Republicans and Democrats in a veritable dead heat, the biggest problem for Dems is the fact that the poll shows Republicans far more charged up about the coming election.

There is a complex set of reasons that “regime change” is on the minds of many pro-Republicans. Most relevant are the state of the economy and the bold accomplishments against entrenched “powers that be” in just two years by a Democratic-dominated Washington.

It has been well-documented that the economic crisis was not the work of Democrats, but of the unregulated, greed-driven frenzy of the Bush administration, and that a solid majority of Americans remain aware of that fact. It is also widely acknowledged by both non-partisan and bi-partisan panels of experts that bold moves by Obama when he came into power, the so-called “stimulus measures,” preserved over two million jobs and prevented a nosedive into a Second Great Depression.

It is also clear that Democrats were able to implement some bold, long-overdue fundamental reforms of some of the most egregious inequities in the America by delivering on health care and financial, including credit card, reform, despite the mobilization of grass roots obstructionists, heavily funded by the scions of Wall Street and the health care industry.

Both Moran and Connolly worked hard and passionately to help make these things happen. Their opponents, Keith Fimian and Patrick Murray, are among those Republicans and their radical Tea Party flank who advocate rolling back these achievements.

While disinformation and the continued under-performance of the economy, due in part to the GOP’s resistance to still-needed major reforms, may drive many desperate voters into the Republican camp this fall, there is not a scintilla of doubt in our minds that the country is far better served by the likes of Moran and Connolly than by the politics of fear-driven reaction.