Elder Bush praises Romney

“We like Mitt Romney,’’ Bush said on CNN Monday night, when asked by host Larry King who his personal favorite is for the 2012 race for president. “We know him well and like him very much.’’

“He’s a reasonable guy,’’ he added. “A conservative fellow, which is good. But no, I think he’d be a good president, a very good president.’’

Bush, who was interviewed with his wife, Barbara, said he was less familiar with other possible candidates.

“We don’t know them all,’’ Bush said, before referencing the governor of Minnesota. “This guy [Tim] Pawlenty out there from the Midwest, I don’t know him, never met him. Everyone says he’s a wonderful person.’’

Barbara Bush mentioned other governors — Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana — as others they liked but joined her husband in backing Romney.

“I’ll go with George. Mitt Romney,’’ she said. “I like a lot of them. But I like people who feel that you can respect other people’s ideas. I like that a lot.’’

The former first lady also made it clear that she did not favor a presidential run by former Alaska governor Sarah Palin.

“Well, I sat next to her once. Thought she was beautiful,’’ Barbara Bush said. “And I think she’s very happy in Alaska. And I hope she’ll stay there.’’ — MATT VISER

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky persuaded 31 other Republican senators last week to join him in filing a brief that backs the states’ attempt to derail the new law.

Brown’s spokeswoman, Gail Gitcho, reiterated that the Massachusetts Republican opposes the new health care law but would not say specifically why he did not sign onto the lawsuit.

“Senator Brown remains opposed to Obamacare,’’ she said in a statement. “He is doing what he can to fix some of the worst parts of the law.’’

The brief, filed in US District Court in Florida, targets the law’s individual mandate, a controversial portion that would require citizens to obtain health care. The GOP senators argue that the federal government does not have the authority to force citizens to purchase a product.

The suit is being led by Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, and he has been joined by attorneys general from 19 other states, none of which are from New England. Massachusetts already has a health care plan that includes an individual mandate; Brown supported that plan as a state senator, but has argued that states should be leading the charge on health care reform, not the federal government.

Earlier this month, McConnell began asking other senators to join him in filing a brief in the Florida case. The vast majority of the Republican caucus — 31 of the 40 other senators — joined the case, including two New England moderates, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, both Republicans from Maine.

Six other returning senators did not: Brown, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Richard Lugar of Indiana, Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, and Chuck Grassley of Iowa. Three outgoing senators — Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Bob Bennett of Utah, and George Voinovich of Ohio — also did not join the suit.

Although Brown has said his goal is to kill the law, he has not joined several efforts to repeal it. Instead, Brown has been attempting to make targeted changes to the measure.

Gitcho noted several things Brown wants changed, including repealing a tax on medical devices, eliminating a stringent reporting requirement for small businesses, and allowing children’s hospitals to continue purchasing certain medications at a discount.

Brown last week also filed legislation with Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, that would allow states to more quickly opt out of certain portions of the law as long as they met certain standards. — MATT VISER

Buerkle, 59, an attorney for New York state, beat Maffei, 42, after as many as 11,000 absentee ballots were counted by hand and polling officials verified returns on electronic voting machines used for the first time in a statewide election. — BLOOMBERG NEWS