JERRY MILLER'S PERSONAL TRIBUTE TO JENNIFER DUNN

We lost one of our true greats this past week. Most have referred to her as Congresswoman Dunn. Some still call her Chairman Dunn. I knew her as "Jennifer"... wife of Dennis Dunn, King County GOP Chairman in 1971... a job I would hold two decades later. I knew Jennifer as a lovely young woman with a mind of her own... convictions of steel... and frailties as real as the rest of us. We would attend the same political functions and... while the aisles were filled with pugnacious party leaders... we’d find room on the dance floor as a welcome reprieve. And any man who ever danced with Jennifer Dunn could feel... as well as see... the strength... the determination... and the dynamism of this remarkable woman. I danced with her whenever the opportunity presented itself. Mainly because somewhere during the exercise I always encountered a "Jennifer hug".

Jennifer carefully watched her husband and his difficulties navigating the wakes of the political purists. She saw the flaws and failures in the system... and the potential for accomplishment and the promise of leadership. When she decided to take an active role... she started at the top. In the mid-80’s she made the rounds of GOP leaders all around the state... found frustrations like her own... and ran successfully for Chair of the Washington State Republican Party.

Though we had maintained contact during the interim 20 years, it was while she served so effectively as re-elected state chair... and I was fumbling through a single term as King County chair... that we became the closest. There were times at GOP functions in other states when we were the only two localites around... and we spent some intensely rewarding and encouraging personal time together. I, seven years her senior, learned a lot. And she apparently thought her guidance was worth the effort and, whenever she entered a fan-filled room and saw me there, she gave me a generous hug that usually satisfied me until the next time we were at another function.

In later years, even after she had waged a campaign for top leadership of the house in the Congress of the United States, whenever she entered a room "back home" and I was there... for some reason known only to her, I was the only one to get a Jennifer hug.

Jennifer’s Just Reward must be a very special place in Heaven... reserved for female leaders who are not dissuaded from being beautiful and ladylike as well as desk pounding and agenda driven. It’s a place I am not qualified to go, but if there is a Lower Level... or a "Down the Hall"... and our Empyrian Paths should coincide... I will cross my wings and silently pray for one last loving "Jennifer hug".