Local governments have more leeway to be crazy.

Because not enough people care about local governments. They have the misconception that national elections affect them more. Voters seem to vote for the incumbents simply because they recognize the names on the ballot. I actually bothered to read the positions of the candidates for city council who ended up winning, and they're ****ing nuts.

Basically, the two "sides" in local government can be summed up as

Liberal: "Spend spend spend!"
Conservative: "Spend spend spend... and develop every square inch of land within loosely-interpreted legal limits, even those over a toxic waste dump."

Then again, I live in Orange County. These people actually elect nutjob-in-chief Ed Royce to Congress, so maybe they actually know who they're voting for in local elections.

http://boards.theforce.net/your_jedi_council_community/b10008/27266370/p1/?3