The grumbling among some GOP leaders over Doug Hoffman’s so-far lackluster effort in NY-23 grew louder this week as the would-be congressman failed to show up at a meeting of the Hamilton County Republican Party.

This comes on the heels of Hoffman’s most recent FEC filing, which revealed he had raised just $13,550 over the last three months (although he loaned his campaign $100,000) and was vastly outgunned in the money race by a relative newcomer, Matt Doheny.

In addition, the conservative Club for Growth, which spent more than $1 million to help Hoffman in last year’s special election, has so far declined to take sides in the upcoming race in which Democratic Rep. Bill Owens is seeking to defend the seat his party wrested from GOP hands for the first time in more than a century.

The state Conservative Party is so far sticking by Hoffman, but GOP leaders are wondering if the lack of national attention on NY-23 in the upcoming general election could mean last year’s Tea Party cause célèbre no longer has sufficient star power to carry their banner into the race.

“They’re trying to use the same fulcrum again, sending out fundraising letters saying the chairs has nominated a liberal Republican when Matt Doheny is anything but liberal,” a Doheny-backing GOP leader griped to me earlier this week.

“…All that attention – Glenn Beck and that kind of stuff – I don’t think that’s happening this year,” the leader continued. “If you had asked me in January, I would have said Hoffman’s the guy because of his momentum. But there doesn’t seem to be any that I can see now.”

“I wouldn’t say there’s a movement to get him out of the race, but we’re impressed with Doheny. Matt works 100 times as hard as this guy. He’s doing all the right things.”

When I noted that Hoffman recently purchased a house in NY-23, the leader replied: “That’s nice. He should have been there to begin with.”

Doheny has been working the district and picked up the support of a number of GOP committees, including Oneida County, Madison County and the cities of Oswego and Fulton. He also has the backing of the GOP chairs from Clinton, Essex and Jefferson counties.

Hoffman advisor Rob Ryan scoffed at the suggestion that his candidate is dialing it in, saying: “Yes he’s running. That’s a silly question.”

“Everybody seems to forget, conveniently, how we raised close to $2 million in a very short time,” Ryan said, referring to the surge of cash that Hoffman enjoyed when his 2009 race became a quest for conservatives to send a message to the more moderate leadership of the national GOP.

“Just like last year, we’re approaching this in our own fashion,” Ryan added.

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