Or so says Mike McKay, a Seattle lawyer and state Republican delegate who co-chairs Washington's Bush for President campaign with the congresswoman from Bellevue.

McKay recalled a conversation with Dunn about the late Massachusetts Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., a Republican elder statesman who ran for re-election while also managing Dwight D. Eisenhower's 1952 presidential campaign.

Eisenhower carried Massachusetts and was elected, Lodge lost to a feisty young congressman named Jack Kennedy.

Dunn made one thing clear to McKay: She ain't going out like that.

She knows there have been key congressional leaders who have worked presidential campaigns, only to lose their own races, McKay said. So, I'm confident that will not happen to her.

If anyone fits the role of Lodge this election season, it may be Dunn. Even while fending off Democratic challenger Heidi Behrens-Benedict, the Republican heavyweight is out to deliver Washington to George W. Bush, and as many of this state's nine congressional seats as possible to her Grand Old Party. (See bio info on candidates)

It is a role that has taken the four-term congresswoman and rising political star out on the stump for her GOP brethren in other congressional districts.

It also took her to Danville, Ky., last week for the vice presidential debate, and to Boston a day earlier to provide a post-mortem on the presidential debate for W. himself.

Still, Dunn insists she's not overlooking her own race.

I never take anything for granted, she said Monday. I'm always in my district, campaigning every weekend.

Judging from Washington's primary election results, Dunn's weekend stints on the 8th District stump may be enough: She took nearly 61 percent of the Sept. 9 vote to Behrens-Benedict's 37 percent.

Libertarian candidate Bernard McIlroy managed just over 2 percent to land on the general election ballot, but party officials say he is not actively campaigning.

But Democrats hope weekends won't cut it for Dunn against Behrens-Benedict, who is logging 12-hour campaign days in her second go-round against Dunn. Her goal is to contact every 8th District voter to explain why she better represents the area's core values.

For Behrens-Benedict, a widow and mother of two, that has meant speaking anwyhere to anybody who will listen.

And it meant getting a boost from political allies from The Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood and Washington Ceasefire, who gathered Wednesday with Behrens-Benedict to highlight what they call Dunn's abysmal voting record on environmental, abortion and gun-control issues.

All three groups have endorsed Behrens-Benedict.

She knows she can't beat a political behemoth like Dunn without help. Dunn's $1.48 million war chest is well-padded, with 40 percent coming from political action committee contributions and 58 percent from corporations such as Microsoft and individuals such as Vashon Island businessman and Republican stalwart Tom Stewart.

Behrens-Benedict has raised just $308,000.

We don't have the money, we don't have the name recognition, she said. We have the issues. If we work together, we can win.

Behrens-Benedict added that Dunn has completely lost touch with her community in her ambition to climb the ranks of political leadership.

Democrats are banking on research that tells them that the 8th District is not the Republican stronghold it was when Dunn first was elected in 1992.

Today, Democrats say, the district that spans most of eastern King and Pierce counties is about split between Republicans, Democrats and Independents.

And it is a district where Dunn has been slipping since she won 76 percent of votes in 1994, taking just 58 percent when Behrens-Benedict launched a late campaign in 1998.

The 8th District is changing, and Heidi is a lot closer to the core values here then Jennifer Dunn is, said Paul Berendt, chairman of the state Democratic Party.

Perhaps that is why Dunn ran pre-primary television ads this season, Berendt offers -- worrying that Heidi is creeping up on her.

But this week Dunn said her strategy hasn't changed and accused her opponent of being out of touch.

Indeed, Behrens-Benedict hammered away on gun control, abortion rights and environmental issues in 1998, as well.

Dunn this week defended her positions on those issues, saying she takes the Libertarian viewpoint on abortion -- that government should stay out of an individual's decision -- and that she is a Constitutionalist who defends gun owners' rights while still believing in firearm safety.

On Wednesday, Dunn was in Washington, D.C., voting for the Pipeline Safety Improvements Act, saying it would bring more local oversight of pipeline operations. The bill was rejected.

Dunn also said she helped win money for the Interstate 90 Sunset Interchange and for Interstate 405 improvements in downtown Bellevue, two long-overdue projects needed to ease congestion.

Other measures Dunn has pushed have won national support, including Megan's Law -- the sexual predator notification measure -- and an end to the so-called death tax on inheritance.