Incoming Secretary of State John Kerry, who thanked reporters for their coverage of the Senate during his career on Tueday, hired Boston Globe politics editor Glen Johnson to work as an adviser at the State Department.

“He’s not a partisan,” Kerry said of Johnson in a statement. “He just cares about the quality of our dialogue and he cares about our country and he’ll contribute to both of them. I’ll be lucky to have him at my side in this endeavor.”

Johnson has been covering Kerry, the senior senator from Massachusetts, in his capacity as politics editor at the Globe. In October, he pointed out that Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., supported Kerry for Secretary of State — perhaps because Brown wanted a fallback plan in case he lost his reelection campaign in November (he did lose).

“I think that he has a very good knowledge of world affairs, he’s a real leader on that issue,” Brown told Johnson. “And I looked to his guidance when we were doing the START Treaty, and when we’re dealing with foreign issues.”