The reason why state control works better in this scenario is because of the law of numbers. It takes a lot more effort to exert control over a state than a city, town, or county. Add in the fact that voter interest and participation drops at each lower level of government, and you have a recipe for capture. School boards are probably the best example of this.

This is a big problem in NYS, where there are too many little overlapping fiefdoms with different boundaries, election schedules, etc. that your average citizen cannot be expected to keep track of and hold accountable; basically government by obfuscation. Robert Moses did a lot of bad things, but he did towards the end of his career call for things to be consolidated at a level no lower than county level.