Brian Baird Kept Plans For Divorce A Secret -- Dissolution Papers Signed After Election

OLYMPIA - Congressman-elect Brian Baird told his wife April 15 he wanted a divorce, but asked her to keep it a secret until after last week's election for fear of alienating voters, she said.

Baird signed divorce papers on Thursday, two days after he easily won election in Southwestern Washington's 3rd Congressional District. The petition for dissolution of marriage was filed Friday.

Court papers say the Bairds separated Sept. 10 and signed a property settlement Sept. 29, the day the separation became official.

"He asked me for a divorce in April and he wanted to keep this a secret because he didn't want it to influence what voters did," Mary Baird said Friday.

"I thought you should be honest and maybe the public needs to know that these things take their toll on families," she said. "We could announce it. It could be done with. I didn't think it would ruin his campaign but he didn't want to risk it."

Although she thought her husband should have announced their separation and pending divorce months ago, Mary Baird said she did not want to make it public or file for divorce herself.

"Brian wanted the divorce, I didn't."

Brian Baird would not discuss the divorce, said his campaign manager, Paige Richardson.

"There are two sides to every story. That's all I have to say," Richardson said.

After Baird's request for a divorce in April, Mary Baird stopped going to campaign appearances, she said.

She said she told Baird and his campaign manager to stop using pictures of her, or of her children from a previous marriage, in campaign literature. The campaign largely complied, she said, but its Web site continued to feature two photographs of Mary and Brian. One of the photos also included her children and an exchange student, and said, "Brian and his wife, Mary, are raising two children, both of whom are now in college." The photos also were used in campaign pamphlets.

After being questioned about the photographs Saturday, the Baird campaign removed the pictures from the Web site, which is still online.

After the separation, Baird continued to talk about his wife as if nothing had changed. In a meeting Oct. 13 with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer editorial board, televised on cable channel TVW, Baird said, "My wife, Mary, is a nurse practitioner, we have two kids. . . ."

Baird, a Democrat, won in his second campaign for Congress. He is a psychology professor at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma who ran two years ago and nearly beat incumbent GOP Rep. Linda Smith.

He won Tuesday with 54 percent of the vote over Republican state Sen. Don Benton.

The Bairds were married in 1992 and lived in Olympia.