Thanks MJ. The choke looked to be working fine on the Holley carb. I switched to a new Summit carb and the choke looked to be working as well but I still had the same no start problem. The Holley may have had a blown power valve but I've not taken it apart yet.
Next I plan to check power in a bunch of places to include the choke, ignition switch and other areas. I had one recommendation that the ignition switch may not be providing power in the on position thus the engine won't start when I release the key. Another person said they had a similar issue and it turned out to be a bad sparkplug wire. They replace all wires and the problem went away. Thanks for the suggestions, Mike