Yes, summer is starting, and yes, there is no scheduled election this year — but for members of Congress, that does not matter.

It is still time to raise campaign money, because in the big leagues, it is always time to raise money.

The next reporting deadline for the upcoming Federal Elections Commission (FEC) quarter is still a month away. For two of Hawaii’s members of Congress, Sen. Brian Schatz and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, that doesn’t matter either — they are already packing more than a million campaign dollars.

Reports from the last quarter show that Gabbard has $1.5 million in the bank and picked up $140,000 in the previous quarter.

Schatz is a tad ahead with $1.55 million in the bank. He is also ahead in the quarterly fundraising, having picked up $781,000.

At one time, Gabbard and Schatz could have been headed for a 2016 election showdown, if she had decided to challenge Schatz’s Senate seat. The pair quashed those rumors earlier in the year in the best Washington, D.C., fashion by holding a joint fundraiser.

Hawaii’s other two members of Congress, Sen. Mazie Hirono and freshman Rep. K. Mark Takai, are further back in the race for money.

Hirono, who isn’t up for re-election until 2018, reports a campaign kitty of just $290,000, but she has recently been actively fundraising, picking up $140,000 in the last quarter. Takai says he raised $115,000.

When elections come around, though, Schatz and Gabbard are at the top of their fundraising game.

Members have two ways of raising money: either by hitting up campaign donors or by creating a leadership political action committee. The difference is that the first way is strictly controlled by the FEC, but with the latter, if you have a PAC with much more liberal FEC guidelines, it is a smooth trip to the bank.

"Leadership PACs provide a way for candidates to fund their travel, office expenses, consultants, polling and other non-campaign expenses," explains the campaign reform website Open Secrets.

They are considered separate from a campaign committee and have higher spending limits.

Gabbard’s leadership PAC has raised and spent more than $40,000. Schatz’s leadership PAC has raised and spent just $20,000.

But, when you add both the PAC money and the campaign contributions, Schatz is the heavyweight in local fundraising.

Last year’s election fundraising brought Schatz $6 million and he spent $5 million. He had a major fight in last year’s primary, beating former Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa by just 1,782 votes.

For Gabbard, who had no serious opposition, the 2014 campaign was still a million-dollar affair as she raised $1.7 million in 2013 and 2014, and spent $900,000.

Gabbard’s go-to donors, according to Open Secrets, were those in the security and investment industry. They gave Gabbard and her PAC $82,000.

For Schatz, lawyers and law firms dumped $650,000 into his campaign.

And, he is ending the current quarter with a Plaza Club fundraiser on June 29 in Honolulu, marking the beginning of the "give early and give often" political season.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.