Gingrich hits O’Malley gas tax plan at Md. State House

ANNAPOLIS — Newt Gingrich visited the state capital on Tuesday to campaign for Maryland’s April 3 presidential primary.

Mr. Gingrich toured the city during the morning and made a stop at the State House where he briefly addressed the Senate before meeting with a group of House Republicans.

The former U.S. House speaker spoke with reporters afterward and spent much of the time defending his struggling presidential campaign.

He acknowledged that campaign money is tight but said he plans to stay in the race until GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney reaches a majority of possible convention delegates.

Mr. Gingrich said if Mr. Romney does not collect a majority by the June 26 Utah primary, he will challenge the former Massachusetts governor all the way to the Republican National Convention in August.

“At that point, I think most Republicans agree that I would probably do a better job debating [President] Obama than any other candidate,” he said.

While Mr. Gingrich stuck mostly to national politics, he joked during a visit to the majority-Democratic Senate that his votes would probably differ from theirs on some issues.

While talking to reporters, he also slammed Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Democrat, for proposing an increase in the state’s gas tax that appears to have lost most of its support from lawmakers.

The proposal “shows as much political insensitivity as you can imagine,” he said. “Given everybody’s concern about the price of gasoline, to have an effort made to raise the price by as much as 25 cents a gallon strikes me as being very, very anti-everyday-working-American.”