Eric Chancy Croft is an American lawyer and current member of the Anchorage Assembly, representing Anchorage's West district. From 1997 to 2006, Croft served five terms as the Alaska State Representative for District 15, representing Spenard, Anchorage. He was also a candidate in the August 2006 Democratic gubernatorial primary election in Alaska. He received 23.1% of the vote, losing to 68.6% achieved by former governor Tony Knowles. Croft served as Anchorage's school board president from 2013 to 2016. In April 2016 he was elected to the Anchorage Assembly, replacing Ernie Hall, who decided not to run for reelection.
Early and personal life
Eric Chancy Croft was born in Anchorage, Alaska on November 6, 1964. His parents, Toni and Leland Chancy Croft, moved to Alaska in 1962, having previously resided within West Texas; the latter served in the Alaska House and Alaska Senate, and was the Democratic gubernatorial candidate for Alaska governor in 1978. His maternal grandfather, John Conwell Williamson, was a wildcatter in West Texas, who contributed to uncovering more oil in both Texas and New Mexico than any contemporary before him. Croft grew up in the South Addition neighborhood adjacent to downtown Anchorage, graduating from West Anchorage High School in 1982. He went on to Stanford University, earning an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering; his mother, uncle Ralph Ervin Williamson and sister Kymberly Croft Miller also graduated from Stanford. He then received a law degree from the University of California'sHastings College of Law. Croft is an attorney in Alaska. He and his wife, Joanna Burke Croft, own Alaska Professional Testing, Inc. Joanna Croft, an architect by training, is also an alumnus of Stanford.
Political career
Eric Croft was first elected to the Alaska House in 1996, four years after graduating law school, and was reelected four times, facing generally nominal opposition in his Democratic Anchorage district. He is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association and received both the 2003 NRA Defender of Freedom and Gun Rights Legislator of the Year awards. He is a strong supporter in Alaska's initiative process as well as a strong proponent of the prospective Alaska natural gas pipeline. A strong supporter of gender parity, he is "pro-choice," supporting a woman's right to privacy regarding her procreative rights but subject to the right to life of a viable fetus. He announced his candidacy for governor in 2006 focusing on natural resource issues and that Alaskans get their "fair share" of the state's resource wealth. He joined with future governor Sarah Palin to lodge an ethics complaint against Attorney GeneralGregg Renkes, who later resigned from his office.
