US News

Voters ditching their Dem IDs

WASHINGTON — The Democrat in charge of returning Congress to his party’s control yesterday boldly predicted Nancy Pelosi will be back as House speaker in two years — even as a poll showed a stunning decline in the number of voters who claim they are Democrats.

“We’re all trying to win it back,” Long Island Rep. Steve Israel, chairman of the Democratic Campaign Committee, said when asked if it was his goal to retake at least 25 Republican House seats.

But the political climate may not be cooperating with Israel’s dreams of a return to the majority.

Over the two years since President Obama took office, the country has become less Democratic, more independent and more Republican, a Gallup Poll has found.

The number of self-identified Democrats in the country has dropped to 31 percent — a 5-point drop from just two years ago — according to a year’s worth of Gallup polling.

The Democratic Party identification ties the lowest average that Gallup has recorded in the last 22 years. The 36-per- cent figure for self-identified Democrats for 2008 was actually a high-water mark for the party.

Independents, meanwhile, continue to show growing strength. The number of Americans calling themselves independents has hit 38 percent — near the high of the last two decades — and three points above the number two years ago.

There are still more Democrats than Republicans, but the number of Republicans has climbed, from 28 to 29 percent over the last two years.

Meanwhile, the House opened for business yesterday with a reading of the US Constitution — a first in the chamber’s 222-year history — in a nod to the Tea Party that fueled the Republican takeover.

But a woman in the gallery interrupted it just as Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) was reading “no person, except a natural-born citizen, or a citizen of the United States” is eligible for the presidency.

“Except Obama, except Obama. Help us, Jesus!” shouted the woman, who was arrested by Capitol Police.

geoff.earle@nypost.com