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WASHINGTON - Shortly after taking her oath of office Tuesday, Sen. Kay Hagan added a small blue and gold pin to the front of her gray suit jacket.

It was perhaps the smallest point in a day filled with pomp and circumstance, but an important one for the Greensboro Democrat - identifying her as a U.S. senator to those who work in the Capitol complex.

"You're official," exclaimed Colleen Flanagan, Hagan's communications director, when the newly minted senator showed off her new bling. It will help her speed through the warren of corridors on Capitol Hill while others are stopped by security checks and off-limits signs.

Hagan was among nine new senators to take their oaths Tuesday and among 34 members who were sworn in, many having won re-election this fall. She's also the first resident of Greensboro elected to the U.S. Senate.

Senators were called forward in groups of four to take their oaths from Vice President Dick Cheney.

And indeed, she is official. Hagan signed on as a co-sponsor of her first bill Tuesday - a measure meant to give plaintiffs a better chance of winning workplace discrimination cases.

She began her term on a day when the larger swirl of news was occasionally circuslike. Ronald Burris, appointed by embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to fill president-elect Barack Obama's Senate seat, showed up but was turned away. In Minnesota, a close election has led to legal wrangling over that Senate seat - and delayed Hagan's move to a permanent office.

"I tossed and turned," Hagan said an hour before she walked onto the Senate floor, saying she was restless the night before becoming the junior senator from North Carolina.

Hagan spent the day surrounded by family and friends, starting with a breakfast where her father, Joe Ruthven, read a toast recapping her run for office.

"Kay stood her ground and took no guff. Kay Hagan showed them she was tough," went a few lines of the verse he composed for the occasion.

Later, Hagan spent time in her office, doing interviews and taking phone calls from well-wishers.

"Hey Charlie, good morning," Hagan said to her 95-year-old father-in-law, Charlie Hagan. He could not make the trip to Washington with the rest of the Hagan and Ruthven clans. "We're sad you're not here with us."

She also took a call from former N.C. Gov. Jim Hunt.

As she prepared to go to the Senate chambers, Hagan thought about her work for the coming year. She still has to hire the final few members of her staff and dig into the issues the Senate will tackle this year.

Already looming is a financial stimulus package that is meant to wrench the economy out of its slide. Hagan also likely will see votes on topics such as union organizing, which she debated with Sen. Elizabeth Dole, the Republican incumbent she defeated.

And there will be a press of individual duties, from making recommendations on federal appointments to dealing with constituent services.

Hagan took her oath using a family Bible - a moment she re-enacted later with her husband, Chip, standing by her side.

For the actual swearing in, U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, a Republican and the other senator from North Carolina, escorted Hagan on the Senate floor and gave her a hug after Cheney congratulated her.

Later, he stopped by her temporary Senate office to wish her well.

Burr said he told Hagan to take the day to enjoy herself and adjust to her surroundings. "Tomorrow," he said, "business starts."

Burr started his time in Congress by serving in the House before getting elected to the Senate four years ago. He said the adjustment can be awkward.

"I remember the first day I walked into the House of Representatives," Burr said outside Hagan's office. "I couldn't even find the bathroom."

Chip Hagan and the couple's three children were in the gallery as Hagan took her official oath.

"It was great because my son (Tilden) reached out and grabbed our knees," Chip Hagan said. "It was saying, this is it. It was really a touching moment."

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com