GOP Rep. Charles Taylor, who is being outfundraised and outpolled by Democrat Heath Shuler in North Carolina's 11th district, is coming under increased attention for potential ethics problems, as The Hill's Elana Schor reports.

Rep. Charles Taylor (R-N.C.) used earmarks to create an overseas study program for Russian business students coordinated by his friend and business partner, an ex-KGB general's wife and onetime English teacher.

The International Trade and Small Business Institute, created last year and funded through a Taylor earmark to the Small Business Administration (SBA), uses federal money to send seven Russian students to eight North Carolina schools for business courses. Two of the students hail from Ivanovo, the depressed textile city where Taylor is majority owner of the local bank and a frequent real-estate investor.

This is not the first time that Taylor has come under heat in recent years for potentially shady dealings.

Taylor was implicated in a 2001 federal investigation of fraudulent loans made by the Blue Ridge Savings & Loan bank, which he founded and still chairs, that led to fraud and conspiracy guilty pleas by Taylor's former campaign manager and one of his top campaign donors. Yet Taylor, whose net worth tops $70 million, was never interviewed by prosecutors conducting the probe.

It is bad enough for Congressmen to stick unneeded earmarks into legislation. But when earmarks go to fund pet projects in another country -- projects controlled by friends of the Congressmen, projects that could potentially benefit the Congressman -- a line has been crossed.

Now Congressman Taylor will be able to cut himself a fat check between now and election day so that he can try to buy reelection -- or at least remain competitive with local football star Shuler -- but if Taylor has a bit of a taint in the eyes of the voters, no amount of money is going to be able to change their minds.

Already, many in the 11th district are unhappy with Taylor for skipping the key vote on CAFTA when he had pledged to vote no on the trade measure, so Taylor can ill afford to have to answer more questions about his ties to Russian power brokers. Yet if Taylor does not address these allegations -- and fast -- this election is going to slip away from him before he even realizes it and the Democrats will be one seat closer to taking back the House.