What do Madonna and the cast of “Glee” have in common with former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson?

They all want to reduce America’s $16 trillion debt? Uh, maybe. But better still, they’ve all danced “Gangnam Style.”

Leave it to the former Republican senator from Wyoming, for whom I can personally vouch as being hilarious, to come up with a creative way to call attention to the most recent, large-scale effort to call attention to addressing America’s long-term debt reduction efforts. The 81-year-old senator performed the dance, made popular by a South Korean rapper in a video that went viral, to promote “The Can Kicks Back,” a group that is partners with Fix the Debt and which aims to get young people to support debt reduction.

Simpson’s career in politics may be past, but there’s always “Dancing with the Stars.”

From left: Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan, Rep. Rhonda Fields, Councilman Bob Roth, Rep. – elect Polly Lawrence and Councilman Brad Pierce. The Denver Post

State lawmakers from Aurora huddled with members of the city council Monday, munching on cookies and introducing themselves to one another ahead of the commencement of the January legislative session.

“It’s something we do every year,” said Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan, a former state lawmaker and longtime city councilman, who was elected to his current position in 2011. “It’s good to put faces with names and know who we can reach out to.”

State Reps. elect – John Buckner, Polly Lawrence, Jenice May and Jovan Melton joined state Reps. Rhonda Fields and Su Ryden in meeting with council members and Hogan.

No state Senators from Aurora attended the meeting.

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Mona Merchant and her daughter Monisha Merchant watch as Gov. John Hickenlooper visits with the Colorado delegation at the DNC in Charlotte. (Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post)

First it was Sen. Michael Bennet being picked as the new head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and now Gov. John Hickenlooper is getting a national post with a party organization.

Hickenlooper was elected vice-chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, the group announced today. Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin was elected as chairman of the organization while Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley – the previous DGA chairman – was chosen as the group’s finance chair.

“As governors, our most important work continues to be creating jobs and expanding opportunity in our states,” Hickenlooper said in a statement. “I’m proud to be able to serve my colleagues as vice chair. This is a great opportunity to showcase the good work happening in Colorado and other states with Democratic governors.”

WASHINGTON — A proposal that paves an easy path for veterans to teach in classrooms that Sen. Michael Bennet has been carrying since 2009 passed the Senate Tuesday in the National Defense Authorization Act.

Bennet’s Troops to Teachers program “provides qualified troops with financial incentives to teach in our nation’s neediest schools,” according to his office.

The program, already in existance, will be expanded under the legislation passed Tuesday.

“An increasing number of service members are transitioning from military service to civilian careers. We can make that transition easier by removing barriers for troops who want to enlist their talents in the effort to teach our children,” Bennet said, in a statement.

Sen. Mark Udall also got his military “greening” proposal into the Act, which removes provisions from the Act that limited the military’s use and development of biofuels.

The passage of the defense spending bill was a long time coming in the U.S. Senate since the House passed its version last spring.

In the House version, one of GOP Rep. Mike Coffman’s proposals to reduce troop levels in Europe passed. Coffman’s plan, which was also supported by Democratic Rep. Jared Polis, didn’t make it in the Senate version passed Tuesday.

The differences between the two pieces of legislation will be worked out in conference.

Sometimes too much of a good thing, is a good thing. But it can also be expensive.

The Book of Mormon Broadway musical sold out in Denver in less than five hours in January, beginning a successful year for the Denver Arts and Venue department that had to ask for $1.1 million extra from Denver’s council to make up for the extra expenses. (Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post)

That is the lesson from Denver’s Arts and Venues Department, which saw a flood of events come into the venues that the city department operates, such as Red Rocks and the Denver Performing Arts Complex.

Arts and Venues officials went before the City Council on Monday to request $1.1 million more for in its 2012 coffers, because expenses of putting on so many more shows were more than anticipated when the budget was allocated last year. The council gave initial approval to the request with a final vote set for next week.

“We have had much better business and we need more money to pay for it,” said Director Kent Rice at a mayor-council meeting last week. “We have had more Broadway shows at the Buell than any other year. We had more performances at Red Rocks than we have had. That is why the revenue was extraordinarily high. We also have to have more people working.”

In total, the city saw $7,155,340 more in revenue — a 34 percent increase than what had been expected. More theater productions came to Denver than anticipated, the Denver Cutthroats hockey team started playing at the Coliseum and the city reopened the McNichols building for events.

Overall, the department spent $400,000 more in utilities, $480,000 on labor expenses at the Coliseum and McNichols and had an additional $220,000 in expenses.

The letter is signed by dozens of the top business leaders in Colorado and has a simple message for the state’s congressional delegation: Do something.

Calling itself the Colorado Fiscal Leadership Council, a branch of the state-level Fix the Debt campaign, a bipartisan group of more than 50 top business leaders is calling on the state’s congressional delegation to address the country’s debt crisis, avoiding the looming “fiscal cliff” in the short term, but addressing the longer term problems of the country’s $16 trillion debt.

“We’re basically trying to tell them that they need to take on the debt and deficit issue as their No. 1 top priority,” said Peter Dea, president and CEO of Cirque Resources LP, a co-signer of the letter and co-chairman of the group. “You can’t do this with just tax revenues, you can’t do this with just spending cuts. This is truly an all-of-the-above package.

“Any member of our delegation would have my support if the package had an all-encompassing solution.”

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Signaling a willingness to engage on a number of tricky issues around elections, Colorado’s county clerks have sent a letter to state lawmakers asking for cooperation in improving elections.

“We have a very good election system, but it is no longer meeting all the needs of our voters,” the Colorado County Clerks Association said in a letter to lawmakers. “We have a window of opportunity this session to address real concerns and make needed updates. We hope that with the pressures and partisanship of a presidential election behind us, we can come together to make improvements in the interests of voters and the people of Colorado, regardless of their party.”

Among the issues clerks want to talk about:

Mail ballots: With 74 percent of Colorado voters having cast their ballots by mail in the general election, it’s a “clear mandate from the electorate” in favor of this style of voting, the clerks’ letter said. “We believe the current system – with local mail ballot elections followed by statewide polling place elections – creates confusion for voters, and we think it is time to give the access they overwhelmingly prefer,” the association said in its letter. Moving to greater use of mail ballots will cut costs and eliminate the need for most provision ballots, the clerks argue.

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Denver Councilman Paul Lopez and the Denver Sheriff’s union will host an annual toy drive and holiday party Wednesday, asking people to bring a new, unwrapped toy to help Los Cochinos motorcycle club provide holiday gifts to local children in need.

Denver Councilman Paul Lopez, seen here in a council meeting last year, is co-hosting a toy drive Wednesday and will be working on a food basket giveaway later this month. (Denver Post file photo)

The “Toyz in the Hood” party from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Lookin’ Good Restaurant, 66 Sheridan Boulevard, supports the effort by “Los Cochinos,” who for the past eight years has brought bikes, scooters and other toys as Christmas presents for needy kids in Denver’s Westwood neighborhood.

The event will offer free food for anyone who brings a new toy. The toys will be handed out in e a caravan with Santa in a low-rider being escorted by the motorcycle club going to low-income housing projects, apartments and mobile home parks. Lopez said.

“It’s an awesome sight to see,” said Lopez, who asks people who can’t make the party to drop off toys at his office, 4200 Morrison Road, Unit 7. Those who want to RSVP for the party, contact Jesus Orrantia at jesus.orrantia@denvergov.org.

Also, for six years Lopez has been involved in the annual Sam Sandos Christmas Gift Program, which has been delivering full Christmas meals to low-income families on the west side since 1978.
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RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post

Chantel Blunk, wife of Jonathan Blunk, waits on the tarmac at Denver International Airport in July as her husband’s body is about to be loaded into a plane to fly to Reno for his full military funeral. Blunk, a five-year U.S. Navy veteran, was killed during a July 20 shooting rampage at a movie theater in Aurora — the sixth-most searched news topic on Yahoo! this year.

“Election 2012″ was the most searched news topic in 2012 with the theater shooting in Aurora in July coming in at No. 6, according to Yahoo!

Yahoo! this morning released its Year in Review, the annual look back at the top stories and trends of the year based on the daily search habits of millions of people.

Here’s a look at the Top 10 politicians searched:

1) Barack Obama

2) Mitt Romney

3) Sarah Palin

4) Ron Paul

5) Hillary Clinton

6) Rick Santorum

7) John Edwards

8) Paul Ryan

9) Elizabeth Warren

10) Arnold Schwarzenegger

Rep. Mark Waller was pretty pleased last summer when he came up with the name for his political-action committee: Waller’s Outstanding Leadership Fund or WOLF Pac.

CGA

Rep. Mark Waller

CGA

Sen. Mary Hodge

“I started with WOLF and worked background trying to come up with the name. I must have spent all of 25 minutes on it,” he said, tongue-in-cheek.

So you can imagine the Colorado Springs Republican’s shock/dismay/outrage/indignation when he discovered that Democratic Sen. Mary Hodge of Brighton in October started her own political-action committee called, you might have guessed it, Wolf PAC.

Waller, who will be the minority leader when the session opens in January, said he called Hodge to give her some “grief” over the name. He said Hodge replied that she didn’t learn that people called his committee Wolf PAC until she had her fundraiser in October.

“She said she didn’t think there would be any confusion, and I said, ‘Send me your e-mail list and I’ll try to figure that out on my own,’” he said, with a laugh.

Secretary of state records show Waller has raised about $5,000, while Hodge, who started her group in October, has raised $1,300.