On my Edelbrock 1405 (600 cfm) on my 360, I don't have a choke hooked up .. .is this really necessary? I live in CA, so it's not like I'm taking the car out in freezing cold weather.
Nope, not necessary. It's a just makes life easier in colder climates on a daily driver so you don't have to sit there and manually muck with the idle via the throttle while it warms up or pump the crap out of it when it hits 0 F or below.