Republican Tom Cross, the state House minority leader, fired off a letter to Democrats earlier this month that rips ... Democrats.

Cross doesn't see the missive as political, so the postage was paid by the state, not his campaign fund.

Myron Brick, chairman of the Will County Democratic Party, said it appears the letter dated May 12 was sent to all of his party's precinct committeemen. Brick himself received one.

In the letter, Cross, of Oswego, shreds "the Democrats" for raiding the pension fund, stuffing the budget with pork projects and continuing an "unprecedented streak of borrowing and spending."

Cross said nothing in the letter was inaccurate.

"This is what the Democrats' General Assembly did with our tax dollars — it's the truth," he said.

Brick thinks Cross sent the letter to demoralize Democrats going into the November election.

"This is not a good season for the Republicans, and they know that," Brick said.

<script language=JavaScript type=text/javascript> document.write("") </script> <script language=JavaScript src="http://a3.suntimes.com/RealMedia/ads/adstream_jx.ads/www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/top/4_1_jo26_cross_s1.htm@TopLeft,TopRight,BottomLeft,Position1,Position2!BottomLeft"></script>

"They're trying to get Democrats to sit on their hands when we're more highly motivated than we've ever been."

Brick said he had received numerous calls about the letter, and he thinks it will have the opposite effect.

"It has inspired them to work even harder," he said of the party's 200 or so precinct committeemen. "He (Cross) should be a motivational speaker for the Democrats."

Because of its anti-Democrat tone, Brick assumed the letter was paid for from Cross' campaign fund.

Cross said the letter was sent to about 2,000 officials of both parties in Will, DuPage and Kendall counties, just as previous reports from him have been sent to the same group.

Cross views his letters as a way to update officials on the General Assembly's actions. In this case, Cross admitted that he was furious with the way Democrats — who control the House, Senate and executive branch of state government — handled the budget.

The state is months behind in Medicaid payments, and still there are $800 million in pork projects in the new budget, he explained.

"It's criminal," he fumed. "It's nuts."

But Brick said the letter was one-sided.

"I didn't see any alternatives in his piece on how to proceed (with budget matters)," Brick said.

Cross added that he never attacked any one specific Democrat in the letter. Also, the November election is months away, so the letter cannot be viewed as campaign literature, said Cross, who is unopposed in his 84th District race.

"In my opinion, their public policy is bad," he said of Springfield Democrats. "Is that political?"

Cross said he sends such letters to inform, but also to get feedback from Republicans and Democrats alike who live in and around his district.

"It wasn't meant to irritate local Democrats," he said.

Dan White, executive director of the State Board of Elections, said the letter appears to abide by a state law that prohibits using public funds on campaign literature. Cross would have had to call on letter recipients to vote for or against a specific candidate or a ballot proposition for it to be inappropriate.

"I do not believe it crosses that threshold of urging a vote for or against a candidate," White said.

Even so, Brick had one piece of advice for Cross: "If the bottom line is so important to him, he shouldn't waste stamps."