Gingrich’s New District May Give Him Trouble : Politics: The Georgia firebrand finds himself representing a more upscale area after redistricting. Some warn that his anti-abortion stance could be his undoing.

House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich’s move to a new heavily Republican district north of Atlanta promises to insulate him from the repeated Democratic challenges in his district southwest of the city.

But whatever political security the new 6th District may offer could well be offset by new intraparty squabbles as the firebrand of the Republican right moves into an area where many Republicans describe themselves as both progressive and pro-choice.

“The difference is night and day,” said Atlanta pollster Claibourne Darden, contrasting the mostly rural, blue-collar district Gingrich represents with the suburban, upper middle-class district he is moving into, thanks to redistricting.

“He’s not going to impress folks up here talking to an empty chamber on C-SPAN,” said Guy Davis, the 1986 Republican gubernatorial nominee and a longtime resident of the new district.

C-SPAN is the cable television channel that broadcasts House proceedings. Gingrich used it skillfully early in his congressional career to build a national following as a partisan bulldog always willing to challenge the House Democratic leadership.

“That bellicose talk may go over with some, but generally speaking, people up here want to hear well-reasoned opinions and explanations,” Davis said. “They’re going to have questions and they’re not going to be awe-struck.”

Gingrich was forced to change his political base after the Democratic-controlled Legislature last month dismantled his old district and placed his Jonesboro residence in the majority black 5th District represented by veteran civil rights leader John Lewis. The plan must be approved by the Justice Department.

Perhaps the biggest potential challenge facing Gingrich, who won reelection by fewer than 1,000 votes last year, is persuading the predominant pro-choice wing of the new 6th District’s Republican Party to support him despite his anti-abortion position.

“It’s not a big issue now, but I think toward the end of an election, it could be a deciding issue,” state Rep. Dorothy Felton said.

Even Felton, one of the 6th District Republican leaders who urged Gingrich to move into the area, said that she might vote against him if she thought he intended to work actively to overturn the Supreme Court decision guaranteeing the right to abortion.

Gingrich insists that the differences in beliefs and backgrounds between his current 6th District and the new 6th District are no reason for concern. He said anti-abortion voters in the new 6th are not single-issue ideologues.

“I think that there’s a willingness on a broad basis to look at my record on economics and foreign policy and congressional reform and come to the conclusion that I’m somebody they can support,” he said.

Few expect Gingrich’s move into a more progressive, upscale Republican district to change his style--least of all Gingrich.

“Everybody in the new 6th has for the last 15 years seen the same Newt Gingrich on television as everybody in the old 6th,” he said. “This is not like I’m moving to a new media market and we’re going to reshape me.

“I have strengths and I have weaknesses, but what you get is me.”