The news organization Politico has named Sen.-elect Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., as one of “13 people to watch in politics in 2013.”

Politico writer MacKenzie Weinger noted that Donnelly repeatedly said during his campaign he will bring “Hoosier common sense to the Senate” and that, as a House member the past six years, he has been a member of the moderate and conservative Blue Dog Coalition.

“In 2013, look for the new senator, who campaigned on his moderate voting record as well as his opposition to abortion and support for gun rights, to be a force in helping the centrist wing of the Democratic Party fight for relevance in the 113th Congress. It’s time to see what ‘Hoosier common sense’ really means,” Weinger wrote for a story published Christmas Day.

Others on Politico’s watch list include new Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the first black senator from the South since Reconstruction; Sen.-elect Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a consumer protection advocate; actress Ashley Judd, a Democrat who might run for the Kentucky Senate seat held by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell; Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee and chairman of the House Budget Committee; Cory Booker, the high-profile Democratic mayor of Newark, N.J.; and Marty Baron, the new executive editor of the Washington Post.