Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman is not normally in the cheering section for Gov. Chris Christie.

A black woman and a liberal Democrat, she has almost no common ground with him. She’s been the target of some of his most piercing attacks, and she’s fired back just as hard, calling him a "schoolyard bully" whose behavior was "reprehensible."

But there she was Thursday morning, in the front row as the governor spoke at a drug treatment center in Trenton about his plans to divert nonviolent drug offenders from prison into treatment.

"He seems sincere on this," she said. "He recognizes that there really is value in every human being."

New Jersey is quickly reaching a consensus on the folly of the drug war as it is waged today. With Christie pushing, and Democrats cheering him on, big reforms are now almost inevitable.

The big reason is that mass incarceration has so clearly failed. It costs nearly $50,000 to hold an inmate in a prison cell for a year. That’s more than twice what it costs to provide the most intensive drug treatment.

And when prisoners are released with drug addictions intact, they go back and do more damage to their families and their neighborhoods, typically landing back in jail where the cycle starts all over. Treatment, though cheaper, works much better.

"This is something I feel strongly about, and I know the legislators here feel strongly about it, too," the governor said, tipping his head toward Watson Coleman. "We focus on the wrong things in our battle against drugs. It’s a well-intentioned failure. But it’s a failure nonetheless."

This is heartfelt stuff for the governor. He was on the board of a drug treatment center in Morris County before he was elected, and he has seen that it can work.

But think about the politics of this, too. Because that is where this governor really excels.

He has been in office two years, and has accomplished more than any governor since Tom Kean. When you consider that he’s done it during brutal economic times, and with a Legislature controlled by the other party, that is no small feat.

Republicans across America look at this and they say it shows what can be done when a tough conservative sticks to his guns.

But they have it all wrong. He has governed as a centrist on the big things, such as education and crime. He has made big compromises on his central issues, such as the pension and health reform. And he is always crossing into Democratic territory, seducing the bosses to cooperate with him, and poaching issues when he can, as he did at the drug treatment center on Thursday.

"It’s brilliant politics," says Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester). "I get in trouble for saying that in my party, but this is a bright guy. He’s talking about issues that people on my side of the aisle really care about.

"We’ve come together on a lot of things. I guess it’s partly because you see how screwed up Washington is, where all they want to do is make sure the other guy can’t win. Here, it’s a collaboration."

So Christie was in Irvington last month, talking about drug treatment and the need for tenure reform to get rid of bad teachers. His package of education reforms is almost identical to President Obama’s, except that Christie wants to experiment with school vouchers, a position that has traction in failing urban districts.

Is he invulnerable in 2013? Not quite. Democrats can build a case that he is no friend of the middle class. He vetoed the millionaires tax. He cut property tax rebates, creating an effective average increase of 20 percent over two years. Tolls are higher, along with bus fares. And his combativeness tends to turn off women.

But Christie is playing the game of politics at a different level than any governor since Kean.

And as long as Democrats are willing to meet him halfway, we are likely to see his list of accomplishments grow.

"Honestly, I want to get some things done, and so does he," Sweeney says. "For he and I to play games, and then nothing gets done, that just doesn’t work."