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By Alexander Burns (@aburnspolitico, aburns@politico.com )


FIRST IN SCORE - HAHN'S FAST START: Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn has rapidly ramped up her campaign to succeed California Rep. Jane Harman in the House of Representatives, assembling a top-flight team of advisers and securing the endorsement of one of the most prominent Democrats in California politics. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told Hahn that he would support her immediately after she announced Monday, according to a Hahn campaign source. Hahn, who ran for lieutenant governor in 2010, was the first Democrat to declare for Harman's seat after news broke that the congresswoman was resigning to take over the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Villaraigosa defeated her brother, James Hahn, in the 2005 Los Angeles mayor's race.


MORE - MEET THE TEAM - Janice Hahn is likely to have company in the race pretty soon: California Secretary of State Debra Bowen and other local Democrats have expressed interest in the seat. But Hahn has put together a group of advisers who could steer her through a competitive fight for the seat. Joe Trippi will run Hahn's media while John Shallman, of Shallman Communications, will be her general consultant. She's secured John Fairbank - of Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates - to serve as her pollster. Her fundraising will be handled by Stephanie Daily Smith, most recently of Rep. Karen Bass's successful 2010 campaign. The special election for Harman's seat will be the first held under California's new "jungle primary" rules, where all the candidates - regardless of party - compete in the same first-round vote before the top two finishers advance to a general election.


As Jesse White endorses, Joe Sestak looks to the future and Dick Wadhams advances in a another direction, here's POLITICO's Morning Score: your daily guide to the permanent campaign.


POPPING TODAY - 'REPEAL THIS': A coalition of liberal groups is going up on the radio today with ads targeting Republican members of Congress for voting to repeal health care reform. Americans United for Change and Daily Kos are taking aim at New Hampshire Rep. Charlie Bass's district, criticizing the Republican congressman for accepting federal health insurance while backing repeal. "When it comes to health care protections, Congressman Charlie Bass thinks he deserves better than you," the ad says. "Congressman Bass gets affordable health care, with protections against insurance companies cutting him and his family off. No lifetime limits. No annual caps. No preexisting conditions. But last month Bass voted to deny you and your family these same protections." Bass's district is only one target of this radio ad campaign: Daily Kos is also going after Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan and Blue America PAC is going after Florida Rep. Sandy Adams and New Jersey Rep. Leonard Lance with similar ads. Listen to them here: http://bit.ly/goZOrL ; here: http://bit.ly/dN0W1X ; here: http://bit.ly/epGiyd ; and here: http://bit.ly/hyrwRs


THE 2012 SCORE - VEEPSTAKES! Even at this early stage in the 2012 cycle, Republicans are getting excited about the number of strong options they have for the vice presidential slot next year, your Morning Score correspondent reports: "Republicans are already gushing over the sheer diversity of the candidates-unprecedented in terms of race, gender, geography and political experience-who could fill out the 2012 ticket. That group includes a throng of young politicians who aren't yet 50 years old and one, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who isn't even 40. There are three Latinos in the group, two Indian-Americans, numerous women and candidates from almost every swing state in the country.... Several Republicans called the large number of strong vice presidential prospects a sign that the GOP was finally developing impressive new talents again, after back-to-back defeats in 2006 and 2008 that effectively wiped out the GOP's bench of younger candidates." http://politi.co/ihBaKw


MORE - NICK AYERS PREDICTS: "Former RGA executive director Nick Ayers flatly predicted that the next Republican vice presidential candidate would come from the ranks of energetic state executives. 'Not only do I think they should be on short lists, I'm very confident that one of them, if now a few of them, will be asked to take the job,' he said. 'There are just too many attractive options of governors who are running serious states, that have and will have impressive records, for them not to be asked.'" http://politi.co/ihBaKw


BRANSTAD DEFENDS IOWA CAUCUSES, SELF: Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad took a shot Monday at other states trying to get in on the early presidential primary game - specifically, the ones planning straw polls late this year to compete for candidates' time. Radio Iowa's O. Kay Henderson: "Branstad dismisses the idea 'straw poll' contests being planned in Illinois and Florida could upstage Iowa's Caucuses. 'The first real contest is the Iowa Caucuses and I would certainly urge candidates not to take that for granted,' Branstad said. 'And those that have in the past I think have regretted it.' According to Branstad, he's 'been around long enough' to have seen states like Michigan and Louisiana fail in their attempts to steal the attention of candidates and the media." Branstad also pushed back hard on a report in the Washington Post suggesting that he was personally inclined to support Tim Pawlenty for president, telling reporters: "I was just absolutely flabbergasted that some kind of a story would be written like that without ever calling me or my office." http://bit.ly/dQLWPv


SPEAKING OF T-PAW: He spoke to the Family Leader in Iowa yesterday and put his best social conservative foot forward, the Des Moines Register reports: "Pawlenty, a Republican expected to explore a 2012 campaign for president, told about 200 social conservatives in Pella that he had backed restricting abortion rights and banning same-sex marriage during his 20 year political career in Minnesota. As governor, he held Bible studies and cites scripture, as he did Monday during the event at Pella Christian High School. But Pawlenty, a Baptist who was raised Roman Catholic, said he tries to affirm his beliefs without condemning others'. Most importantly perhaps to Iowa caucusgoers looking for the right balance, Pawlenty pointed out his approach to social issues did not prevent him from winning two terms as governor in a Democrat-leaning state." http://bit.ly/iaaADB


AND - SAVE THE DATE: Texas Rep. and 2008 presidential cult favorite Ron Paul will participate in the Family Leader's presidential lecture series next month, following Pawlenty by addressing the Iowa social conservative group on March 7. KCRG-TV: "Congressman Paul is scheduled to deliver a pro-family lecture and meet with members of Leadership Roundtables at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Pella Christian High School in Pella, and the University of Iowa in Iowa City." http://bit.ly/h5EaZy


KIMBALL'S TEAM GROWS: New Hampshire GOP Chairman Jack Kimball has named Christine Baratta, a veteran of Jim Bender's 2010 Senate campaign, to serve as the party's communications director. Glen Johnson: "She is a Lowell native and was a talk-radio producer in Boston for over 10 years. Prior to joining the NH GOP, Baratta served as a communications consultant on state and federal campaigns in New England." http://bit.ly/hmNFsE


POPPING ON 2012 LIVE - LOCKED OUT: Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson won't have a speaking slot at CPAC later this week, even though his name will be listed in a 2012 straw poll at the conservative gathering. POLITICO's Kendra Marr: "'We did put in a request, but he was not asked to speak,' Ron Nielson, Johnson's longtime advisor, told POLITICO. ... Team Johnson has been theorizing that the former governor's support of legalizing marijuana and gay rights left them out in the cold. But Grover Norquist, who is on the ACU board and has been lobbying to get Johnson a speaking slot, ruled it out. 'It's just a question of things being full,' he told POLITICO." http://politi.co/hwouhv


SNEAK PEEK - BUCK DOESN'T STOP: Former Colorado Senate candidate Ken Buck will announce today that he's forming an organization, Balance America, to advocate for a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution. From Buck's statement: Colorado's grassroots and I were certainly not happy about barely losing my race last year. "But now that's less important compared to the real danger of national financial ruin unless we take back our future from those who are squandering it ... The last election is over but we're still faced with the same problems. So now is the time to deepen our resolve by realizing we can all help save America through engaging from the grassroots up."


ELSEWHERE IN COLORADO - WADHAMS OUT: Colorado Republican Party Chair Dick Wadhams dropped his campaign for reelection last night, following state Sen. Ted Harvey's decision to challenge Wadhams's leadership from the right. Wadhams wrote to the state GOP's central committee (h/t Marin Cogan): "I have tired of those who are obsessed with seeing conspiracies around every corner and who have terribly misguided notions of what the role of the state party is ...I have no delusions this will recede." Wadhams told KDVR-TV that he wasn't concerned about whether he could win: "I was going to win ... I just decided this is the right time to go do something else." http://bit.ly/f4UTkN


BACK IN D.C. - END OF AN ERA - "Democratic Leadership Council will fold," scoops POLITICO's Ben Smith: "The ... iconic centrist organization of the Clinton years, is out of money and could close its doors as soon as next week, a person familiar with the plans said Monday. The DLC, a network of Democratic elected officials and policy intellectuals had long been fading from its mid-'90s political relevance, tarred by the left as a symbol of 'triangulation' at a moment when there's little appetite for intra-party warfare on the center-right. The group tried -- but has failed -- to remake itself in the summer of 2009, when its founder, Al From, stepped down as president." More from Smith: "In the Obama era, the group has simply struggled for relevance. Its leaders remained close to the Clintons, and presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton headlined the DLC's 2006 annual gathering in Denver. But as Hillary Clinton's presidential fortunes waned, so did the DLC's influence." http://politi.co/gHu19x and http://politi.co/ibqtfo


POLL OF THE DAY - NOT LOVIN' LINDSEY: There's no U.S. senator who's a more obvious tea party target than South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham. And while there are still a few years before Graham comes up for reelection, PPP finds that he's "one of the most unpopular senators in the country with his own party": "In quite an unusual twist for a Republican Senator his 39% approval with liberals is higher than his 32% mark with conservatives. Graham continues to be one of the most popular Senators in the country with the other party, as only 38% of Democrats disapprove of him while almost as many at 31% approve. ... [O]nly 43% of Republicans approve of him to 36% who disapprove." http://bit.ly/hpJsRQ


MORE 2014 - GOV. SESTAK? Former Pennsylvania Senate candidate Joe Sestak is already mulling another campaign for statewide office, PoliticsPA reports: "One source said he was in the room with Sestak and his advisers while they discussed a gubernatorial campaign. Another committeeman loyal to the Admiral, when talking about prospective candidates he might support in 2014, made sure always to add, 'unless Sestak decides to get in, then I'm with him.'" http://bit.ly/fuVpsV


CHICAGO WATCH - WHITE'S GUY: Rahm Emanuel picked up the endorsement of Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White yesterday, giving him the support of one of the state's highest-profile black officials. It's the latest sign that efforts to rally minority voters against Emanuel have failed to slow the former White House chief of staff's campaign. WLS-TV: "During an event at a North Side charter school, White praised all the mayoral candidates, calling several of them 'personal friends'. But White added that 'one candidate stands out. His name is Rahm Emanuel'. On being the only back elected official to back Emanuel, White said he had 'no apologies'." http://bit.ly/eXYRmQ


CODA - TWEET OF THE DAY: "I recommend leadership in Egypt must honor the commitment to peace with Israel as a condition for continued aid. Does POTUS agree?" - Former Delaware Senate candidate, federal investigation subject and apparent Mideast expert@ChristineOD http://bit.ly/dXCh0Y

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