The Seattle Times report s that King County Executive Dow Constantine's standby political consultant, Christian Sinderman, won a $60,000 King County contract doing political outreach for Constantine.

The contract was put out to bid, but Republicans grouse that the fat contract looks like a political reward for a political ally.

The Seattle Times writes:

Some Republicans, though, say the contract gives the impression Constantine is rewarding a political associate and burnishing his image for future campaigns despite a procurement process intended to prevent favoritism in government contracting.

State Republican Party Chairman Kirby Wilbur called it "a suspicious coincidence" that Sinderman began his current January-to-December contract as Constantine was being talked up as a possible candidate for governor if Chris Gregoire doesn't run for re-election in 2012.

Constantine has said he doesn't intend to run for governor.

For his part, Sinderman said he is "always happy to lend a hand" to U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Bainbridge Island, who is widely expected to run for governor.

Deputy County Executive Fred Jarrett said Sinderman was simply the best communications consultant to help promote Constantine's objective of providing better government service, more efficiently.

"From my perspective, it was not the relationship that was the interesting thing," Jarrett said. "It was the content of the proposal. Christian was the only one who came back with something that really mirrored what we were trying to accomplish."

The other bidders, Jarrett said, offered "pretty traditional, cut-and-paste strategic outreach components, and that wasn't at all what we were looking for."