In Missouri we have special spiders. They are trained to seek out the carburetor of any vehicle sitting for a sufficiently long period of time for the fuel in the carburetor to dry. They then crawl into the carburetor, locate the idle circuit, and build their nests, effectively plugging the idle circuit. There is a sub-specie of these that do the same with any carburetor sitting on the shelf. It has been decades since I have ventured into the state of California, so do not know if this particular spider exists there or not.
As far as the quality of fuel is concerned, after 50 years of selling carburetors and parts world-wide, it is my opinion that while the fuel sold in California may be environmentally friendly, it is second only to that sold in Colorado for NOT being engine friendly. I think I would do a compression test, possibly followed by a leakdown test. If the engine passes these tests, and you wish to keep it, I would suggest a carburetor rebuild prior to attempting to start the engine for both of the possible issues stated above.
Jon
