If you believe Adam Temple, President Obama's low approval ratings will help Republicans win state legislative seats this fall.

But if you believe Michael Sargeant, GOP election gains nationally won't necessarily translate into GOP gains in statehouses.

The two state political experts - Temple is a Republican and Sargeant a Democrat - offered different predictions about the coming election while speaking Wednesday at the Public Affairs Council's "State and Local Government Relations" seminar.

Temple, communications director for the Republican State Leadership Committee, noted that when a president's approval rating stood below 50 percent - as Obama's now does - the impact on state legislative races was "significant." For instance, when President George H.W. Bush's approval ratings stood below 50 percent just before the 1994 election, Republicans picked up 472 legislative seats.

Temple, who spoke on the final day of the two-day seminar in Alexandria, Va., predicted Republicans this November would seize control of at least six state legislatures now in Democrats' hands, and said the GOP has a shot at taking as many as 14 other statehouses.

"What we see is an electorate that doesn't like what's happening on a federal level," said Temple, who said massive Republican wins in state races will allow the GOP to redraw political boundaries so they favor the party in future elections.

Sargeant, who is executive director of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, acknowledged that it will be a "difficult" election year for Democrats and that he is "concerned" that Tea Party-inspired enthusiasm may translate into large GOP voter turnout on Election Day.

But he noted that Democrats already control the majority of the nation's statehouses and that state candidates are distancing themselves from national Democrats by talking about issues important to state constituents.

"Cycle after cycle, (candidates) have run campaigns that speak to their districts," he said. "They are the local pharmacist, the local principal, the local teacher, the small business person."

And history, he said, demonstrates that GOP wins on a national level don't always translate to similar wins locally. For instance, while Democrats lost U.S. House and Senate seats in 2004, 10 state legislatures went from GOP to Democratic control.