A state Senate candidate busted in a Craigslist rent scam once boasted to his ex-wife that his past stints in prison for fraud made him the perfect politician, she told The Post.
“I told him, ‘You can’t run for office — you’re a criminal,’ ” Irina Girodes said of her reaction when Jon Girodes declared he was running as the GOP candidate in the 30th District in Upper Manhattan in 2010, six months after his release on an 18-month sentence for fraud.
“But he said, ‘That’s why I’ll be good at it. They’re all crooked and anyone can apply,’ ” she told The Post.
Jon Girodes, 38, was arraigned Saturday on charges he ripped off at least 10 people by listing his luxury apartment in Midtown for rent at $1,100, taking hefty deposits from them and then going AWOL.
A GOP source said that because Girodes got 4 percent of the vote in 2010, he was penciled in as a “placeholder” against Democrat Bill Perkins in 2014 and again this year — but the party is ruing the day it ever agreed to it.
“He’s obviously not well,” said the source.
Irina Girodes said her ex is good-looking, smart and charming — and “can’t be trusted as far as you can throw him.”
“He was in prison two times for check-writing scams,” she said, adding that he owes her over $20,000 in back child support for their 16-year-old son.
“He is a deadbeat dad,” she said. “He pays no child support. The last time I saw him in court, he drove in with a Mercedes-Benz but then told the judge he had no money for food.”
On his campaign site, Girodes claims to have a finance degree from Northeastern University and to have once worked in modeling for Calvin Klein.
Rob Ryan, a spokesman for the Manhattan Republican Party, said: “Jon Girodes’ actions, words, and deeds are reprehensible and he should withdraw from the race immediately. He was never supported by the party, and due to New York state’s arcane election laws we are unable to remove him from the November ballot.”