Person of the Year for Schapiro? Unlikely

SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro looks like a long shot to share in Time magazine’s 2010 Person of the Year honors.

Last month, Time named Ms. Schapiro, along with Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and Elizabeth Warren, special adviser to the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as finalists for the award, along with 24 others.

“The three powerful women are fighting to fix the male-dominated financial industry … doing their best to keep Wall Street in check and push for tougher regulations during a period of tumultuous recovery from the financial meltdown,” the Time article said.

As of last Wednesday, the three-woman entry ranked 20th out of 25 candidates, with 7,009 votes. They were running ahead of pro basketball superstar LeBron James, Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai and former BP chief executive Tony Hayward, among others.

Topping the list was WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with 355,062 votes. Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a devout Muslim who has worked to liberalize Turkish society, was second with 229,389 votes, and pop star Lady Gaga third with 143,225.

Time editors, of course, pointed out that they “reserve the right to disagree” with the voting in selecting the person they believe had the biggest impact on the world in 2010. They will announce their pick Wednesday.