McCrory blames politics for HB2 fallout that cost the state big NCAA and ACC games

Gov. Pat McCrory on Thursday blamed politics for House Bill 2 fallout that has cost Charlotte and other North Carolina cities high-profile college games, citing the state’s pivotal role in the presidential election.

The Republican made the comments in a speech in Charlotte to the Hood Hargett group of business and civic leaders, just one day after the Atlantic Coast Conference pulled this year’s football title game from Charlotte amid the ongoing firestorm over North Carolina’s HB2. And on Monday, the NCAA said it would yank seven events from the state because of the law.

As he has done in the past, McCrory said boycotts were being inconsistently applied to the state, noting that the NCAA held its men’s basketball championship in Houston this spring even though that city voted down an anti-discrimination ordinance.

“I’ve got to assume it’s politics because this is the No. 1 state in the presidential campaign, this is the No. 1 gubernatorial race in the United States of America,” McCrory said. “I can’t prove that, but why would they not be doing this in Texas right now?”

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article101991487.html