Use a hash to remap your field. 
my %h = ( National => 3, State => 2, Local => 1 );
my @sorted_advocates = sort { $h{$a->{fld_type}} <=> $h{$b->{fld_type}
+} } @advocates;

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Boris

In reply to Re: Efficiently sorting array by non-alpha strings by borisz
in thread Efficiently sorting array by non-alpha strings by knowmad

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