The city had originally booked the extremist entertainer to appear through his New York agency -- but that was before city officials learned of Nugent's despicable reputation (including his recent calling of the president a "subhuman mongrel"). They have now come to their senses and cancelled the contract for Nugent to appear. And they are so determined to not have him appear that they are paying a $16,000 cancellation fee.
Longview Mayor Jay Dean said, "We're a diverse community and we're trying to find a group or act that people throughout the community feel good about." He went on to say, "Not a lot of people know who Ted is. Younger people here don't know him."
As usual, the clueless and classless Nugent went way over the top in responding to the cancellation, calling the city's mayor a "racist", "clueless", and "dishonest". Nugent fails to understand that while the folks in East Texas are conservative and generally vote Republican, most of them are not the vicious extremists he wants them to be.
(The caricature of Ted Nugent above is by DonkeyHotey.)