Before Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich addressed hundreds at a rally in Federal Way on Friday, he sat down with KIRO 7 Senior Political Reporter Essex Porter to address some of the issues likely to be important to Washington voters in November’s general election.

Energy and gas prices

At the rally, Gingrich told supporters, “I think if we can get across the message, ‘Newt equals $2.50 a gallon’ – very simple, OK.”

He told Porter the way to do that is more oil and gas drilling.

“The left always says if you want to open up federal land, they’ll always scream, ‘What about (Mount) Rainier? or ‘What about Yosemite?’ or ‘What about Yellowstone?’ That’s baloney,” Gingrich said. “We own 69 percent of Alaska – that’s one-and-a-half times the size of Texas. You could put one half of Texas aside in Alaska and still have an area the size of Texas to develop.”

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Same-sex marriage

Gingrich opposes same-sex marriage, but Porter asked, “What if Washington voters approve it?”

“At least Washington state’s doing it the right way,” Gingrich said. “It’s not some judge imposing a personal view. In fact, you are gonna go to the voters, they are gonna have a chance to vote in this, and I think that’s the right way. If I were here, I would vote no.”

Legalizing marijuana

Gingrich said he feels the same way about legalizing marijuana.

“Why shouldn’t the state have a right to decide that?” Porter asked.

“Because it crosses states’ borders and it involves citizenship,” Gingrich replied. “I don’t think that the steady increase in the tolerance for drugs is a good thing.”

Place in the polls

Gingrich may be behind in the polls in Washington state, and he doesn’t have a big organization here, but he said he believes his ideas will motivate enough people for him to make a surprisingly strong showing.

Gingrich had a campaign rally scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday in Everett at the Historic Everett Theater.