Republicans will have two public meetings next week that will determine the party’s nominee for the Aug. 7 special election to fill former state Sen. Jane Orie’s seat.

The nominee will be picked by conferees, a group of 40 to 50 Republican committee members in the 40th Senatorial District that covers southern Butler County and parts of Allegheny County.

The conferees from Butler County will meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Cranberry Township Municipal Center to interview a list of prospective candidates, according to Butler County Republican Committee Chairman Jeff Smith.

The meeting is open to the public.

Then on June 16, the GOP conferees from both counties will meet at the Pittsburgh Marriott North in Cranberry Township to vote on a final candidate. That meeting starts at 8:30 a.m. and also is open to the public.

Whoever is named will face Democrat Sharon Brown, 59, a McCandless Township health care consultant.

She was picked by Allegheny and Butler counties’ Democratic conferees Thursday night at a meeting at the Cranberry Township Municipal Center.

The winner will complete the remainder of Orie’s term, which expires in 2014.

As for Orie, the former senator on Monday began serving a sentence of 30 months to 10 years in prison for her role in misusing taxpayers’ funds for her own benefit.

Since her conviction in March on 14 charges, Orie has lost her Senate seat and her state pension, and she has been disbarred from practicing law.

Smith said of Orie, “It’s very disappointing when an elected official violates the public trust, and those kinds of actions cause the public to lose respect for all elected officials.

“My hope is that all officials, from local office to the county, state and federal levels, all learn from the former senator’s mistakes and strive to set a standard of behavior that is above reproach.”