Less than 24 hours after Rep. Brian Baird announced his plans not to run for a seventh term for his 3rd Congressional District seat, at least two candidates -- one Democrat and one Republican -- have declared their intentions to seek his seat.

State Rep. Jaime Herrera, a Republican from Clark County, and Rep. Deb Wallace, a Democrat from Vancouver, officially announced their runs for Congress. Herrera joins three other Republican challengers who had filed to run for Baird's seat before he announced his planned retirement Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the National Republican Congressional Committee is already crowing that Baird's decision is a harbinger for the mid-term elections in 2010, when it predicts that voters angry over big-government legislations will boot out Democrats en masse.

Perhaps indulging in wishful thinking, the Republican committee wondered if two of Baird's fellow Washington Democratic congressmen, Adam Smith and Rick Larsen, might be next in "throwing in the towel."

Asked why the Republicans might be bringing up their boss's names, spokespeople for both Smith and Larsen separately gave this identical answer:"desperation?"