A legal fight over the ouster of the Kansas Democratic Party’s secretary two years ago has come to a quiet end.
Last week, the state Democratic Party posted a short announcement on its website stating that the lawsuit brought by former secretary Casey Yingling had been settled.
“With this dispute now over, we look forward to working towards our common goal of electing Democrats in Kansas,” said the statement signed by Yingling and party chair Vicki Hiatt.
In an interview, Hiatt said the case against the party became moot earlier this year after the party elected a new slate of officers and Yingling didn’t run for secretary again.
Hiatt said she filed a motion to dismiss the case when Yingling responded with a settlement agreement.
Hiatt said the settlement agreement called for each side paying its own legal fees. Yingling could not be reached for comment for this story. She indicated a year ago she wanted to settle the case.
Yingling filed a lawsuit in 2018 after she was forced out as state Democratic Party secretary in a raucous meeting in which internal party tensions boiled over.
Yingling was accused of having a conflict of interest when she voted on whether to give $20,000 to Democratic candidate James Thompson in his bid for Congress in 2017, according to published reports.
Yingling’s political consulting firm worked for Thompson in that race.
She also had been accused of using social media to attack the party.
At the time, Yingling said she didn’t think she had a conflict because she wanted to spend money on a Democrat running in an election against a Republican candidate.
She said the proposal was designed in such a way that her consulting firm would not receive any of the money.
Yingling also said she wanted a formal vote on the expenditure in order to foster transparency.
She said she was open about her clients, including Thompson, when she was chosen as secretary.
