The state of Capricorn is the most populous U.S. state in the Commonwealth of Sicilia on Miranda. The state sits on several large oil reserves. The Rumsfeld Reef field is located just offshore and it has more than 15 billion barrels of recoverable oil, meanwhile, the Chicomepec fields contain more than 30 billion. Capricorn's oil fields produce more than 1.5 million barrels of crude oil a day, and production is expected to triple by the end of the 30s. Recent USGS surveys have indicated that the state could sit on as much as 250 billion barrels of crude and 50 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Because of the large petroleum industry, the state's politics are dominated by the oil companies (primarily the supermajors of Esso, Texaco and AmocoMobil and the semi-governmental Petroleum Company of Capricorn (Petcap)), the unions and regulatory bodies. Since Capricorn was admitted as a U.S. state in 2126, the office of the Governor has largely been a ceremonial figurehead. Democrat Leigh Colvin was first elected in 2127 and was re-elected in 2131, defeating a Republican opponent both times (51-46 in 2127, and then 63-29 in 2131). In 2135, she was also endorsed by the Republican Party, and she chose former Republican State Senator Frances Hanley as her running mate. She defeated Green Party candidate Julius K. Babson by more than 80 points--there is a very small but very vocal minority of environmentalists in Capricorn who are opposed to continued drilling (particularly off-shore drilling), while Babson also received a fair number of disgruntled Republican voters.
True political power in Capricorn rests within the Office of the Land Commissioner and within the Energy Sequence. The Land Commissioner overseas the General Land Office which manages Capricorn's publicly owned lands, by negotiating and enforcing leases for the use of the land, and sometimes by making sales of public lands. The Land Office also oversees the operations of Petcap. Republican Derick Dorsheimer--a former executive for AmocoMobil--was elected the first state Land Commissioner in 2126 and was reelected in 2130. He helped to establish the the Capricorn Permanent Fund, which sees at least 25% of the oil money would be put into a dedicated fund for future generations, paying out $1,500/annually to all state residents. However, Dorsheimer was growing increasingly unpopular with his fellow Republicans as he resisted calls to privatize elements of Petcap. He chose to run for a third term in 2134, but he faced a primary challenger in the form of State Senator Jim Spence who ran on a platform of deregulation and privitization. The primary was bitterly fought, but Dorsheimer came out on top, though damaged. For the Democrats, State Representative Rosanna Gonzales emerged out of another tough primary. Gonzales was backed by the OCWA and defeated better-funded primary challengers from the Pioneer Alliance and the United Mineworkers, and she campaigned to nationalize large swathes of land and to enforce a land value tax on the supermajor oil companies. Meanwhile, the Greens chose activist Rebecca Moorman as their candidate. Gonzaels defeated Dorsheimer by 4 points, but the true surprise was New Order candidate Sigmund Olson.
The New Order was a neo-fascist political party. Unlike the Pioneer Alliance that was accused of fascism due to their ultranationalism, militarism and racism, the New Order were actual neo-fascists who argued that (white) Americans were the true Aryan race and that while Hitler had certainly made some tactical blunders, Mein Kampf was a sterling work of fiction. Sigmund Olson (birth name: Stanley Pierzynski) started as a charismatic Christian preacher before become a neo-Nazi politician and believer in Esoteric Nazism and Wotanism. He believed that Hitler and other leading Nazis had escaped Earth following World War 2 on alien UFOs headed for Alpha Centauri, and that the United States had a mission to unite the Aryan race to bring about Ragnarok. The fact that Olson and the New Order did as well as they did was surprising to most observers, though it's believed that many Pioneer Alliance supporters were probably still upset at Gonzales winning the Democratic primary, so they just squinted hard enough and thought "close enough" when voting for Olson.
The Capricorn Energy Sequence covers not only the petroleum industry, but also the nuclear and hydro power industries--though given the state's status as a de facto petrostate, it's the petroleum industry that's most important. As with most energy sequences, the Oil & Chemical Workers of America (OCWA) is the largest union represented. The OCWA is a member of the AFL-CIO, and the other member unions included the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE). The OCWA heads up the AFL-CIO federation on Capricorn, and Craig Poletti has served as the Secretary of the Energy Sequence since it first began in 2126. However, because the AFL-CIO has historically fallen shrot of a full majority, Poletti has governed in a coalition with the NCLC, which has two unions represented--the Teamsters and the Federation of American Scientists (FAS). The white collar American Federation of Salaried Employes made recent gains in 2134, with the Association of American Administrative Assistants (AAAA), Association of American Chemical Engineers (AACE) and the Nuclear Engineering Society of America (NESA) gaining votes--primarily at the expense of the NCLC. The right-wing Union of American Oil Workers (UAOW) also made surprising gains, surpassing the 4% threshold to win seats on the sequence.
The Energy Sequence has broad regulatory powers over the Capricorn petroleum industry. They recently negotiated a new collective bargaining agreement for workers that will see wages increase by more than 40% over the next 4 years. There's also ongoing negotiations to increase the ammount of oil money that goes into the permanent fund and also to increase payouts, though there's been little actual movement. The Energy Sequence serves as the state's de facto legislature while the Land Commissioner serves as the de facto executive. Poletti personally endorsed and campaign for Rosanna Gonzales in the Democratic primary for Land Commissioner despite calls from the AFL-CIO Executive Committee for union leaders to remain neutral in the primary. As with many states, Capricorn operates on the Three Men in a Room model of government, where in the Land Commissioner, Sequence Secretary and President of the State Chamber of Commerce meet to hammer out decisions and compromises. Dirty, yes, but it gets the job done.
A rising issue that has become a source of contention within the various factions of the Democratic Party is what to do with aboriginal lands. The native quatequia species has been largely relegated to small First Nation reserves (aka bantustans) along the state's western borders. However, recent geological surveys have indicated that there could be significant oil reserves under the land. Some have said that this would be a commonwealth or even federal matter, but most of the land in Mecalhuia and Paccama bantustans (were an estimated 20 billion barrels are located) were once part of Capricorn Territory before they were separated by the federal government to form the bantustans. The Pioneer Alliance has been pushing for the American government at all levels to make use of those lands, and it's also an issue that Sigmund Olson and the New Order has pounced on. Democratic leaders like Gonzaels and Poletti are hesitant to act without the commonwealth or federal governments blessing, but there's a concern of rising militarism and radicalization in certain segments of society that could lead to a potential filibuster movement.