Illinois State Sen. Rickey Hendon, D — the man with whom Barack Obama nearly got into a fistfight during his Springfield Days — is doing his best to take his party off-message with his latest pronouncement on the Republicans’ gubernatorial nominee, Bill Brady:

“I’ve never served with such an idiotic, racist, sexist, homophobic person in my life,” Hendon said before introducing Gov. Quinn. “If you think that the minimum wage needs to be three dollars an hour, vote for Bill Brady. If you think that women have no rights whatsoever, except to have his children, vote for Bill Brady. If you think gay and lesbian people need to be locked up and shot in the head, vote for Bill Brady.”

Hyperbole? Not at all, Hendon said in a later interview. He personally watched as Brady voted to lock up all homosexuals and shoot them in the head. That’s the kind of thing they vote on in the Illinois legislature. It comes up every year.

On Election Day, I think we might just be surprised at how many Illinoisans vote for the most idiotic, racist, sexist, homophobic guy Rickey Hendon has ever met.