He later joined the Republican Party and was appointed to fill out a vacancy in the Alaska Senate in 1987, serving in that body for a little over a year.
Fanning became involved in politics during the late 1970s, through additional work as a consultant and lobbyist on natural resource and wildlife issues.
The visits made to Alaska during the 1976 campaign by Libertarian presidential nominee Roger MacBride and running mate David Bergland spurred interest in the state's LP chapter.
Fanning became a protege of Dick Randolph, a Fairbanks insurance agent who served as a Republican in the Alaska House from 1971 to 1974, who himself had joined the LP after meeting MacBride in 1976.
He lost reelection to the late Democratic challenger Niilo Koponen by a nearly two-to-one margin, in a contest with no Republican nominee.
Fanning assumed the management of a hunting and fishing lodge in Yakutat, Alaska, prior to his election to the House.