One presidential race has ended. A new one has begun for the 32,000 members of the American Numismatic Association.

Clifford Mishler, retired CEO of Krause Publications, and current first-term member of the ANA board of governors, has declared his candidacy for ANA president.

This sets a race in motion because incumbent Vice President Patti Finner announced her intention to run for president during the ANA summer convention.

By throwing his hat in the ring, it looks like Mishler guarantees a majority change of five members in the nine-member body elected in July of 2007.

Gov. Radford Stearns recently died. Ed Rochette and Chet Krause will not run again. Rochette cannot run because of term limits. Krause does not want to run. President Barry Stuppler leaves office. Either Finner or Mishler, whoever loses the presidential race, will also leave.

This scenario assumes that incumbents Wendell Wolka, Joe Boling and Walt Ostromecki are all re-elected.

Alan Herbert is now also an incumbent. He joined the board after Stearn’s death, but he was also a member of the old board that had been voted out by the membership.

For students of ANA politics, it looks like exciting times. For friends of the ANA who would like to see a stable organization working through its manifold problems, these are nail-biting times.

Will the new officers and board members elected in July 2009 work in continuity with the present board, or will there be more sharp changes? That’s the big question that members will want answered before they cast their mail ballots next year.