From the department of disappearing idioms comes the phrase: “Whistling past the graveyard.”

It means trying to cheer yourself up when you are going through a scary time.

That is what it sounded like as Charles Djou was proudly announcing he has raised more money in the last reporting period than his mayoral opponents Mayor Kirk Caldwell and former Mayor Peter Carlisle.

“He has not only out-raised both the Caldwell and Carlisle campaigns, the Djou for Mayor campaign nearly doubled the funds raised by both of the other major campaigns combined,” Djou’s campaign announced last week.

Yes, that is true, Djou has picked up $225,507 while Caldwell took in $68,855 and Carlisle raised $56,748.

So it shows that Djou has some surprising vitality — but this race for mayor is still a dark and scary place if you are not the incumbent.

In total, Djou has raised $484,893. In comparison, Caldwell has raised $2,851,098. That’s a difference of 141 percent, meaning Djou still has a lot of whistling left to do in his campaign.

So far, Djou has spent $290,719 to promote his campaign while Caldwell has spent more than $2 million. In fact, Caldwell has spent a half-million dollars on his campaign during the month of July, compared with Djou spending $277,000.

But wait, the David vs. Goliath fans are saying, “What about David Ige against Neil Abercrombie? Ige was way outspent.”

True. The 2014 primary made election history in Hawaii. According to state campaign-finance reports, Ige spent just $584,488, or roughly $3.72 per vote. Abercrombie spent more than $5.5 million — or about $75.79 per vote.

Interestingly, Ige is still keeping with the low-profile fundraising. His campaign manager, Keith Hiraoka, said Ige has held only one fundraiser so far.

By way of comparison, during the first 18 months of Abercrombie’s administration, campaign records show he had already raised $1.8 million; during the same time period, Ige raised just $188,841.

All total, Ige today has a campaign balance of about $301,000.

Hiraoka said it would remain low key for now and that Ige was planning fundraisers later.

“The governor knows this is an election year, so he didn’t want to impose on those who also have races,” Hiraoka said, noting that in a campaign year there is only so much money that donors are willing to give politicians.

“We haven’t actively gone out, but after the general election we expect to start fundraising,” Hiraoka said.

That sort of low-key political style suits Ige, and he has no major challenger on the horizon, but it is a major change in the way most incumbents handle the fundraising business.

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