One stands accused of slashing his girlfriend’s face with a broken glass. The other owes nearly $62,000 in election fines dating back seven years.

State Sens. Hiram Monserrate and Pedro Espada Jr. are helping to alter New York State’s political power structure. But back home in New York City, they’re known almost as much for their run-ins with the law.

“There’s no excuse for this,” said Blair Horner, legislative director of the New York Public Interest Research Group. “These guys should be as pure as Caesar’s wife.”

Prosecutors and election officials tell a far different story of the two Democrats who jumped ship to help Republicans regain control of the Senate.

Monserrate, 41, was indicted in March on three counts of felony assault stemming from an incident at his Queens apartment last Dec. 19. The indictment claims Monserrate, then a city councilman waiting to join the Senate, attacked his girlfriend with a broken glass. She received stitches around her left eye, and he now faces up to seven years in prison if convicted.

There is no jail time in Espada’s future, but the Bronx senator has his own history of legal troubles. He owes nearly $62,000 in fines to the New York City Campaign Finance Board for failing to disclose contributions or exceeding campaign contribution limits. The fines, now several years old, are rooted in more than 20 election law violations stemming from his 2001 run for Bronx borough president.

“Certainly, the fines are significant,” said board spokesman Eric Friedman, “and the violations found in his case are serious violations.”

Espada also faces new allegations that he failed to register his Senate campaign committee with the state Board of Elections, which carries fines up to $6,000.

Asked if he is in compliance with the election law, Espada said Monday, “No, I am not.” But he said he is “on a path” to complete lapsed filings with the Elections Board and pay back the $60,000 to the city elections agency by August under an agreement with the agency.

Four years after his 2001 campaign, three employees at Soundview HealthCare Network, a health care company run by Espada, pleaded guilty to diverting $30,000 in company funds to one of his campaigns. Espada was never charged.

Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo is reportedly looking into the matter. Espada said he has had no inquiries from investigators but would turn over anything Cuomo wants.

“I think that the attempts at character assassination [are] nothing new to me. We’ve survived all of that. I’m sure those without any real agenda will strike back,” he said.

Horner said Espada’s history of thumbing his nose at the law is especially troublesome given his recent rise to power in Albany to Senate president.

“He’s one heartbeat away from being governor,” Horner said of the line of succession.

Espada gained notoriety this year when he and two other Senate Democrats tried to transfer power to Senate Republicans as part of an earlier coup attempt. The effort failed and he and others returned to the Democratic fold.

Unlike Espada, Monserrate could land in jail. He was arrested hours after his girlfriend, Karla Giraldo, was cut. He denied attacking her, claiming he had fallen while bringing her a glass of water.

“From the very beginning I have said this was an accident,” he said at the time. “My girlfriend said it was an accident. And we look forward to the dismissal of all these charges.” Giraldo has stood by Monserrate’s account.

With or without her help, prosecutors are pursuing the case and have refused to lift an order of protection keeping Monserrate away from Giraldo.

“The district attorney’s Domestic Violence Bureau brings a number of cases each year and often the victim is not cooperative,” said Kevin Ryan, a spokesman for Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown.

Ryan confirmed the existence of a videotape that prosecutors introduced as evidence in the case but delined to comment on its contents. In March, an assistant DA said the video showed Giraldo coming out of Monserrate’s apartment with a towel against her face and ringing a neighbor’s doorbell. The video then shows Monserrate pulling her away from the door as she resists.

Monserrate, a former Marine, served with the New York Police Department before getting a psychological disability pension in 2000. He has declined to comment on the cause for his disability claim.

B. Thomas Golisano, the Buffalo Sabres’ owner who helped back the Monday coup, dismissed speculation by Senate Democrats that he would financially help Espada and Monserrate with their legal troubles.

“That’s his personal life. I’m not going to be involved in that or any part of that,” he said of Espada. Of offering to help Monserrate, he said, “Absolutely not, I don’t even know anything about his legal problem.”

If the coup stands, Espada will find himself trying to work with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who Monday vowed to work to keep Malcolm Smith as majority leader of the Senate. On Tuesday, Silver said he had not talked to Espada.

What does he think of the Bronx Democrat?

“I don’t know the man, never knew the man, never spoke to him,” said the Manhattan Democrat.