Kudos to the team !

Got it running after letting it stay idle for two days ..AND guess
what it was ??
the sparkplug!

Not to belabor the point, but this was a real fooler ..
the original plug still gives a great spark when grounding the
tip ...HOWEVER, when I tried same experiment with that plug on another
electric start snowblower ....NOTHING! ..couldn't just swap the plugs
because it was a diff plug, but a working lawnmower used the same
plug ..swapped that one and it gave a strong spark on the second
snowblower ...put lawnmower plug into the malfunctioning
snowblower ...and off it went

Thanks to all who contributed to my dilema.

BTW, years ago I had seen a garage tester for spark plugs that
connected to the air compressor with a pressure gage ...you could see
plugs that worked under atmospheric pressure, but at 120psi, some did
and some didn't ..so, this is NOT speculation, but a fact.

Stew Corman from sunny Endicott