Finner-Ostromecki ANA race next year?

With an American Presidential race unfolding this year, are you ready to consider next year’s election for the presidency of the American Numismatic Association?

There is already some preliminary chatter among members about it.

Why?

Patti Finner has won the election to return to the Central States Numismatic Society board of governors. It was a convincing win to a major regional governing body.

She is eligible to run for president of the ANA again. She went head to head with Clifford Mishler in the 2009 race and garnered 39 percent of the vote.

It was a loss, but in politics losses often contain the seeds of a future victory.

Mishler is one of the most popular figures in numismatics due to his deep roots in it and his long association with Numismatic News and Krause Publications.

He was also part of the clean-up crew elected in 2007 to put the organization to rights.

Finner is widely known as well, more so than next year’s most likely candidate, current vice president Walter Ostromecki.

Ostromecki has deep roots in the California hobby, but it can be said that he is less well known than Finner. In his favor is ANA members’ preference for promoting vice presidents to the presidential chair. However, as Finner knows, the vice presidency doesn’t make the election win automatic. She was sitting vice president in her 2009 election loss.

Certainly, it is very early in the game. Nominations won’t begin until the end of the year

Others might like to try for the ANA presidency as well.

But as you can see, for the few ANA political junkies, there are already things to talk about.