After briefly managing a Republican senate campaign in Michigan last fall, former Colorado GOP chairman Dick Wadhams finds himself uncharacteristically on the sidelines this election season. But that doesn’t mean he’s not active. In today’s Denver Post, the longtime rabble-rouser explains how Colorado could play a significant role in selecting our next president, not only on Tuesday, but at this summer’s Republican convention.

Using his savant-like command of political history and intricate wonkiness about the process, Wadhams helpfully lays out our state’s strategic possibilities in 2012, a year that might see Colorado have a pivotal, Florida-like presence before it’s over. Although we in the local media will miss Wadhams’ campaign-trail antics—as we explained in our 2008 profile of his ill-fated campaign to unseat Mark Udall, the guy just makes for good copy—we’re pleased his voice will still be heard. Because if you think Wadhams will stay out of the limelight in an election year just because he’s not running a campaign, you don’t know Dick.