Caucuses were briefed. Polls are being shared. And the push to swing California bluer is taking shape.

California’s Texas-thwarting gerrymander has swiftly transformed from fantasy to reality.

Democrats in the House and the state Legislature are coalescing around a plan to draw a half-dozen Republican incumbents into oblivion — and persuade California voters to approve the new congressional maps before next year’s midterms. Party leaders are closely tracking the dual-track developments in which lawmakers in Texas and California are moving, in partisan parallel, to shore up their respective party’s House majorities. California Republicans are casting about for a way to avoid extinction.

It all points to a high-stakes, big-dollar brawl thrusting California to the center of the political universe.