For HLS Grad, a Titillating Campaign

The odds are stacked against 1991 Harvard Law School graduate Victor A. Bernace in his race for a seat on the New York City Council—so much so that he’s decided to unleash exotic measures.

The candidate is hoping to pad his campaign war chest by selling tickets to a “sexy, erotic” private party featuring scantily clad go-go dancers. So novel—and naughty—a fund-raising thrust has raised eyebrows and drawn national media attention since its announcement.

“Republicans are trying to use this as an example against Democrats, and I could see them, Karl Rove or their strategists in 2008, using this against the Democratic party,” said Bernace, who has posted to his Web site e-mails he has received from outraged Americans across the country.

Such opposition does not deter him. He said that he might even be ahead of the curve in election finance.

“If this is something successful, the very same politicians would be doing the same thing,” Bernace said. “We could joke about this, but the politicians who have the normal, boring fund-raisers—after they finish the fund-raisers, they sneak away and go to strip clubs and don’t tell their wives or lovers. That’s what usually happens.”

Bernace’s “Havana Nights” fête will be held at New York’s Umbrella Lounge on September 8, mere days before he faces Robert Jackson in a September 13 Democratic primary.

Bernace’s titillating efforts are motivated by a dropping off in his campaign funds. His bid to unseat Jackson, the incumbent in the race for the Washington Heights District 7 Council seat, is not going well so far—he says he is down seven-to-one against Jackson in campaign fund-raising.

And while his plans for the fête have garnered notoriety, Bernace says he’s unsure what all the hubbub has been about.

He said he is trying especially to appeal to young Hispanic voters, who he argues are underinvolved in politics. He said that he believes provocative dancing to be in keeping with Hispanic culture.

“If you look at it from a demographic viewpoint, my district is 50 percent Latino, and they’re not electing Latino representatives. The representatives are Jewish or African-American,” Bernace said, adding, “I’m trying to represent the whole neighborhood.”

In his neighborhood, Bernace said, there hasn’t been a backlash.

“Some of my opponents have bought tickets,” he said. “The Republican candidate—you’d think ‘right-wing, [Moral] Majority’—he bought a ticket, too. Even in my neighborhood, Republicans are cool.”

He also said he does not think that hosting provocative female dancers is inappropriately chauvinistic, and stressed that men, as well as women, will be showing some skin at “Havana Nights.”

“We are trying to get some hot guys in Speedos, too!” he writes on his Web site. “Every human being on earth is wired to think sexually, get over it, we are sexual beings.”

In person, he said he sees no reason not to take an audacious step in his fund-raising strategy.

“It’s an issue of free speech. When Shakespeare was writing hundreds of years ago, his plays were considered very risqué,” he said. “He threw in bawdy jokes to those at the bottom to make people laugh, but he also threw in beautiful thoughts, too.”

Reactions from the political community have been mixed.

“I wouldn’t do what he did,” said Republican candidate Michael Petelka. “But then again I went to Fordham, he went to Harvard. I have a lot of this Catholic-schoolboy stuff.”

“I still donated to his campaign. I’m going to go to that function,” Petelka added.

While Petelka says he thinks the event was not “in good taste,” he said he supports Bernace because the Harvard-law grad would be more beatable than the incumbent Jackson.

Jackson could not be reached for comment this week.

“There’s something very tongue-in-cheek about him, and I think it’s a little sophomoric,” Petelka said.

Bernace said his fund-raiser is “about half sold-out” at the moment, and he is hoping that the national publicity he has received lately will be converted into national fund-raising.

“There’s been a lot of smoke from the controversy, but we have yet to see the fire,” Bernace said. “I’m hoping that liberals from around the country rally to a real liberal like myself to support me. I think that would be the only chance I would have.”

Now practicing as a traffic lawyer, Bernace studied at New York University before studying law at Harvard.

His Web site includes a casting call for sexually provocative dancers.

“Are you a sexy dancer? Do you live in the N.Y. Metro Area?” the site asks. It proceeds to solicit résumés and pictures from interested applicants—to be sent to his post.harvard e-mail address.

“We can’t afford to pay you,” the request concludes, “but you will get national publicity at our event.”

—Staff writer Samuel C. Scott can be reached at sscott@fas.harvard.edu.