Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., who is actively supporting Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for president, feels strongly that Utah deserves a fourth seat, his spokeswoman, Lisa Roskelley, said. She said Huntsman urged McCain to support the bill.

Other presidential hopefuls, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Sen. Barrack Obama, D-Ill., have co-sponsored the bill.

"It has a good chance since it came out of the committee with bipartisan support," Obama said after the meeting.

DC Vote, an advocacy group, will be targeting senators on June 20, with a lobbying day designed to get the votes they need to get it to pass.

Besides McConnell, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, Rep. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M. and Sen. Jon Sununu, R-N.H. do not support the bill, based on views expressed at the committee meeting. Warner voted against the bill in the committee with the other senators voting no by proxy.

Norton has said she would expect all the Senate Democrats to support the bill. But Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., while supportive of D.C. voting rights, hasn't made up his mind yet on the bill, according to his office.

But even if the bill passes the Senate, because it is different than what the House passed earlier this year, it would either need to be re-approved by the House or the House and Senate would work out the differences and each pass the same version of the bill.

Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, said the fact the House and Senate have different bills "creates a new hurdle" for the legislation, but he is happy it is moving forward.

He said the bill could still change along the way, but he would want to see a consensus reached that would allow the bill to go through.

The White House has said it would recommend a veto on the bill, but the bill's supporters, including Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, find it hard to believe that the president would stop a bill than gives people voting rights.

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E-mail: suzanne@desnews.com