The late Lee Atwater used to say that "Issues win campaigns", and he was right.  And former Democrat Speaker of the House Tip O'Neal once said that "All politics is local", and he was largely right as well.

Add the two together and you get "Local issues move voters".

Most people love to express their opinions on everything from foreign policy to balancing the federal budget, but these are issues that rarely motivate voters - or at least have less potential to do so than local issues.