“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.