This morning we got a voicemail from Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor Marcia McCraw. She takes your preconceived notions about Republicans and aborts them. She’s pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, and she wants to legalize pot. This summer she partied at Sturgis and Burning Man.

And her message today makes her seem even more mavericky. From Mexico--five days before the election--she called on her cell phone, saying, “I am driving in the Carrera Panamericana, a classic car road race that goes from the south border of Mexico to the north border of Mexico.”

But despite McCraw's freewheeling positions and roadtrips, she really is a Republican—as proven by some zealous positions on national security and plans to vote for McCain and Rossi. I write about her politics, and her conservative Democrat opponent Brad Owen, in this week’s issue. In our anyone-but-Brad-Owen endorsement of her, we called her an “empty bag of chips.” So she sent us dozens of bag of chips. In hindsight, we should have called her an "empty suitcase of cash."

Anyway, on the voicemail, McCraw pushed her snack-food platform by saying she’s trying to get people to sell bags of potato chips for $25. “If we can get people at every Halloween party on Friday in town to do that… I think it would do a lot for showing that the Republican Party is the big-tent party. Call me.”

While we find McCraw more addictive than a sack of Frito-Lays and are willing to transcribe her voicemail, the Republican Party, on the whole, is no big-tent party. But, hey, if you want to give her a call, everyone loves chips.