I will only base my answer on a state level. Recently Ohio voted in a Democratic Governor, Ted Strickland, into office.
The Highway Patrol in Ohio recently was looking to fill the Colonel's Vacancy. The new adminstration opened it up to outside applicants, on a side note, the Highway Patrol has only had one Colonel from outside its ranks.
Needless to say the administration hiried from within the Patrol but hired a Captain on his way out for being in trouble and not properly handling his district.
Also, cadet's live at the Patrol Academy M-F and go home on the weekends. The base pay every day was 12.66 for 8 hours of work. It was passed by the state legislature to have the pay increased to 18.24 an hour.
The Governor thought it was too much and froze the pay.