Secretary of State Sam Reed and election officials recently had high-level United Nations election experts as visitors at the Capitol — and it all came about by local connections.

Sandra Mitchell, an American who serves as chief technical adviser to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Baghdad, and Robert Langridge, an Aussie who serves as elections security adviser, are on furlough and visiting Mitchell’s Seattle-area friends and family.  They came to Olympia to talk elections with Reed, one of the country’s senior state election officials.

The personal connection was that both Mitchell and Langridge work with Reed’s special assistant, Patrick McDonald, who is currently serving as an election adviser with allied forces in Iraq.

You may remember that McDonald, a master sergeant U.S. Army Reserves, snapped photos of Governor Chris Gregoire when she made a surprise visit to the troops in Iraq in January, back when there was huge speculation a Cabinet appointment was imminent. (False alarm. She’s back in Oly and the Commerce post is going to her old mentor and immediate predecessor,  Gary Locke.)  Patrick is our “Baghdaddy.”

Mitchell and Langridge told Reed they’re reasonably optimistic that the democratic elections process will take hold at the national and regional level, and that President Obama’s troop-withdrawal plan will be successful.