New York- Talk about a stripped-down campaign.

In a likely New York political first, a cash-strapped City Council candidate is planning a fund-raiser featuring “erotic dancers” – all in a bid to notch taxpayer matching funds.

Victor Bernace insists there will be no stripping at the bash, but there’ll be four babes in bikinis and two studs in Speedos.

The Democrat is hoping the $20-a-head burlesque at the Umbrella Lounge in upper Manhattan next month will give him a ballot-box boost.

“Erotic dancing shows are very common in the [Hispanic] culture, so I don’t think it’s unusual,” said Bernace, an NYU and Harvard-educated lawyer with Cuban roots who’s making his third run for the Washington Heights seat, held by Councilman Robert Jackson.

The campaign will hold an “open call” through its Web site, www.bernace.com, for the dancers, and is seeking “volunteer” bumpers-and-grinders.

That’s because Bernace says he checked with the Campaign Finance Board, and was told he can’t use campaign cash to pay for “erotic dancers.”

Bernace’s campaign trough is almost as skimpy as the dancers’ outfits.

Even though he has run before and has a compelling story about lifting himself out of poverty, he’s little-known outside of representing cab drivers.

Bernace needs at least 75 donations from residents in the district, totaling $5,000, to qualify for Campaign Finance Board matching funds.

So his publicist friend, Myra Colon, suggested throwing a “Havana Night” fund-raiser honoring his Cuban heritage.

“It’s gonna be more of a sexy Latin dance versus conventional, a-bunch-of-girls-get-naked,” said Colon, adding, “Or guys, for that matter.

“We are also looking at having cigars, a few other typical Cuban things – maybe even tarot card readers.”

Sources said some in Bernace’s camp want to target “middle-age, lonely men” living in the district.

Asked whether the event might seem a tad risqué, even by New York standards, Bernace, 41, joked, “It might be unusual if you’re a white Anglo-Saxon or from Utah … [but] I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having a slightly sexy, naughty show to bring in voters and to bring in money.”

But Jackson said, “I wouldn’t do it. If I did business that way, I would be criticized.

“But, I guess, to each his own.”