knowmad,
I am assuming you want to sort first by locality type and second by title ASCIIBetically. 
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
my @advocates = (
  {fld_title => 'Rec1', fld_type => 'National'},
  {fld_title => 'Rec2', fld_type => 'State'   },
  {fld_title => 'Rec3', fld_type => 'Local'   }
);
my %order =  (LOCAL => 'A', STATE => 'B', NATIONAL => 'C');
my @sorted = map { $_->[0] }
            sort { $a->[1] cmp $b->[1]
                          ||
                   $a->[2] cmp $b->[2] }
            map { [ $_ , $order{uc $_->{fld_type}}, $_->{fld_title} ] 
+} @advocates;

[download]
Cheers - L~R

I am waiting for tye to comment on my persistent use of the ST.

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

Title:
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