tom-udall-pic2According to an article in Roll Call, freshman U.S. Sen. Tom Udall is in the running for the “Golden Gavel.” The golden gavel goes to the senators who log 100 hours presiding over the Senate.

Udall currently ranks second, with 24 hours and 10 minutes of time spent presiding over the chamber. Currently in first place is Oregon Democrat Sen. Jeff Merkley, who has 28 hours and 15 minutes logged.

Roll Call calls presiding over the Senate “not-so-glamorous.” But Udall and the rest of the senatorial freshman in the 111th Congress will have a hard time matching Jon Tester. From Roll Call:

And speaking of nerdiness, last year’s class has two super-geeks: Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) already has collected two, count ’em, Golden Gavels, putting him way ahead of his classmates. And Sen. Jim Webb earned a special “S.O.S” Golden Gavel for “presiding over the Senate in times of urgent need during the 110th Congress,” even though the Virginia Democrat hasn’t yet logged 100 hours — his assigned times to preside are Mondays and Fridays (because he lives so close to Washington and can be there when traveling Senators can’t), but the Senate usually isn’t in on those days.