Click on over to the cheeky online retailer Woot today, September 8th, and you'll find that the site's unique "one day, one deal" offer is for a 22" LCD monitor for just under $170. But if that's too rich for your blood -- of if you already own, like, five monitors -- you might head instead to Wootdall, a playful new microsite from Democratic Mexico congressman Tom Udall's Senate campaign.

The deal on Wootdall! is far more affordable: for just $7.30 you can pick up a whole second of television air time in Southern New Mexico. That's the part of the state where the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has reportedly dropped some serious cash to run TV commercials in support of Udall's opponent, fellow New Mexico congressperson Steve Pearce. Both Udall and Pearce are running for the Senate seat left vacant by the retirement of long-time Republican Senator Pete Domenici.

Thanks for your time, Steve.

Wootdall...

and its inspiration, Woot, an online retailer quite popular with geeks.

In true Woot style, Wootdall's "deal" is accompanied by some irreverent commentary, in this case a haiku:

We are in great need.
You must match their TV buy.
Lest we fall behind.
Wootdall is crazy.
Udall's Web Team is tired.
Send them hot coffee.

(Note to said web team: You're probably want to stick to politics, kids. Unless the job of New Mexico poet laureate is a Senate-appointed post.)

Woot! is itself an enormously popular and highly unorthodox online retailer that well known in geek culture. Its name comes from the interjection "w00t!," a bit of geeky online lingo. The whimsical site has its own culture and conventions, often mocking its customers or the product up for grabs. The site sometimes offers up a "Bag O' Crap" for just a buck: "BOCs typically sell out in, like, five minutes. It’s nuts. We’re scratching our heads all the way to the bank." Woot's vibrant community can be counted on to dissect the pros and cons of the product on the selling block. It's gamey and jokey, but you can still get a good deal.

It's probably too early to call a trend, but we're starting to see a rise in next-generation politicians tapping into bastions of geek culture like Woot to gin up cash and support. With the distributed nature of the Internet, of course, allies and contributors can just as easily be clear across the country as down the road a piece.

Larry Lessig drew a great deal of attention online when he entertained the idea of running for a California House seat after the death of Tom Lantos, and his somewhat quixotic campaign was much buoyed by the attention of those online who had followed his work at the head of the Creative Commons movement. Washington congressional candidate Darcy Burner, a Democrat, generated a flurry of online fundraising after she ran out of her burning home wearing a shirt reading </war> -- which is, of course, XML code for the phrase "end war." And little known Democratic candidate in Kansas's District 15 Sean Tevis attracted more than 3,000 contributors to his low-profile race when he posted an exquisitely-crafted xkcd-style online comic.

The Udall campaign says that, if all goes well with this first Wootdall deal, they are considering expanding it in true Woot "one deal a day" fashion. The campaign has also experimented with Tom's List -- think wedding registry and substitute a Senate hopeful's campaign for the bride(s) and/or groom(s).

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UPDATE: Steve Olson, the Internet Director for Tom Udall's Senate campaign, was kind enough to answer a few of my emailed question about the launch of Wootdall.

Nancy Scola: What prompted you to do this?

Steve Olson: Since Tom has a great ethics record and is very interested in making government more transparent, Bryan [Barash, the campaign's Internet Communications Manager] and I have been exploring different ways to make our online organizing more transparent too. Our first version was called "Tom's List" where we actually went through our invoices on the campaign and asked people to help pay for those things. Everything from rolls of stamps to gas cards to our rent.

Wootdall was another attempt for us to involve people with a TV buy we had to put in at the last minute to counter some misleading attack ads in Southern New Mexico. We're both big fans of Woot.com (and buy some of our gear for the campaign there) so we thought a little homage would be appropriate.

Who you think the audience is?

This was pretty much an attempt to reach out to the tech geek crowd. I'm not entirely sure that folks unfamiliar with Woot.com would get the joke, but we thought it would be fun - and the response has been really great so far.

How successful its been so far?

Since we're only asking for $7.30 the total amount raised hasn't been huge but it's certainly helped and we think its made the campaign a little more accessible to people who wouldn't be giving $100 or more. We're also very pleased with the comments we've been getting on it - and the numbers of folks who've signed up, even without giving.

How do you see this fitting into other attempts to rally geek support?

I think we're mainly interested in getting the word out there that Tom's right on the policies that folks like us care about. He voted against the Patriot Act, Telecom Immunity and supports net neutrality. Wootdall was fun -- but at the end of the day, it's really about letting people know that we're real people here and are trying to open up more channels to listen to folks, as well as be really transparent about why we're asking for their support.

Thanks for your time, Steve.