SubmittedFormer state senator and new U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie (right), R-Ky., is sworn in Tuesday by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in the Rayburn Room of the U.S. Capitol. Guthrie was joined by his wife, Beth (from left), his son, Robbie, and his daughters, Caroline and Elizabeth.

Bowling Green resident Brett Guthrie took the oath of office for U.S. representative for the 2nd District the same day he resigned from the state Senate.

It also was the same day the election day was set to choose his Senate replacement for Warren and Butler counties – Feb. 10.

Guthrie’s family members were in attendance Tuesday when he took the oath, first en masse on the House floor, then individually.

“It was bittersweet since it was the same day I resigned from the Senate,” Guthrie said Tuesday afternoon. “I am looking forward to the new challenges.”

One such challenge will be Congressional consideration of President-elect Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package for communities. Obama has said he hopes the package, estimated at $750 billion to $1 trillion, can be approved shortly after he takes office.

But Guthrie, like Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., wants time to fully digest the proposal, which has not yet been made public.

Obama said he will post the proposal on the Internet.

“I am for anything that provides transparency, but (posting on the Internet) is no substitute for committee hearings,” Guthrie said.

“We need to have hearings and discourse with the public about what’s in the package,” Guthrie said.

Guthrie said a package that leaves a living legacy such as roads and bridges for the future is one thing, but what the package will contain may be another matter and saddle his children and future grandchildren with tremendous debt.

He expects meetings on the subject to begin in the House today. Guthrie also may learn his committee assignments today.

Guthrie said he never imagined a year ago that he would be in Washington this week being sworn in. It wasn’t until the day of the filing deadline that Guthrie even knew he would be running for the seat. Ron Lewis, R-Cecilia, at the last minute decided not to seek re-election, so Guthrie filed. He was elected to the spot over Owensboro Democrat David Boswell.

“It’s unique coming into Washington at this time. I don’t really know what I expected,” he said. “It is a special feeling to be able to walk the halls where John Quincy Adams and Davy Crockett walked the halls.”

Guthrie is a member of the Warren County Republican executive committee, which, along with Butler County’s Republican executive committee, will nominate candidates for his replacement, but he said he is staying out of the process.

“I don’t think anybody wants me to bestow my seat upon another person,” he said. “I have had several people contact me and I have made sure to tell them how rewarding it can be and how taxing it can be on your family and in your ability to make a living.”

Republicans will have a nominating meeting of the two counties’ executive committees at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Warren County Courthouse to chose a nominee, according to communications director Andi Johnson.

So far those interested in the position on the Republican side include retired General Motors business manager Ed Mills, Bowling Green attorney J. Marshall Hughes, attorney Osi Onyekwuluje, Bowling Green attorney Dennie Hardin, Warren Central High School band director David Graham and WCVK radio General Manager Mike Wilson.

On the Democratic side, the only candidate who has been actively seeking the post is Bowling Green attorney Mike Reynolds.

Democrats will likely hold their nominating meeting Saturday at a time and location yet to be determined, according to party spokesman Tom Karmik.

Karmik said the candidate filing deadline for the election is Jan. 13, so the meeting has to occur before then.

So far Reynolds is the only serious candidate he has heard of.

“But we don’t necessarily hear from people until it’s announced,” he said. “I imagine in the next few days we will start hearing from a few people.”

This will be the second special election that Warren County has had since the November election, said Warren County Clerk Dot Owens. The other was a local option election for a single precinct – the first local option that anyone can remember since Bowling Green went wet.

This would be the first special election for an unexpired term since February 1996, when Roger Thomas beat Henry Honaker for the term vacated by Billy Ray Smith when he was elected state agriculture commissioner. Two years prior to that there was a special election in which Lewis was selected to fill the unexpired House of Representative term of the late William H. Natcher of Bowling Green.

Owens said she is waiting for the names of the nominees of both parties.

“After we get that we will call the printers and get the machines set and the ballot printed,” Owens said. “We haven’t even taken the last election to the grand jury yet, so we still have to get those machines cleaned off. But we will get it done.”

Owens said the state will reimburse the county for election officers, about $12,000 or so, but it could cost the county another $20,000 or so.

Owens thought she might be able to use just one machine at each precinct but she has to have two – the one that scans votes from printed cards and another that provides accessibility for handicapped voters.