Little-known Senate candidate's key issue: illegal immigration...

Little-known Senate candidate's key issue: illegal immigration


The Associated Press, March 24, 2008

Rapid City, SD (AP) -- He won't divulge his age or talk much about what he does for a living. But Republican U.S. Senate candidate Charles Lyonel Gonyo of Trent will say what makes him angry: illegal immigration.

'I'm doing nothing but fighting to save our country from being taken over by illegal aliens,' he said.

Gonyo was the first to gather 2,070 valid petition signatures confirmed by the secretary of state. His petitions were approved March 7, which made him the first GOP Senate hopeful to qualify for the June 3 primary ballot.

'I've been spending the last 12 years fighting illegal immigration,' Gonyo said in a telephone interview with the Rapid City Journal last week. 'I'll be the only one (in the campaign) that's pro-American. Everybody else will be along the lines of open up the borders, bring in all the foreigners.'

Gonyo did say he attended South Dakota State University in Brookings and that he worked as a veterinarian before focusing on illegal immigration.

He said he has been involved in the Minutemen, a civilian group formed to draw attention to illegal immigration, and Wake Up America, a group concerned about illegal immigrants and foreign ownership of property in the United States.

Gonyo said his will be a low-budget campaign and that he probably will serve as his own campaign treasurer.

A primary was assured last week when state Rep. Joel Dykstra of Canton qualified for the ballot.

Two others who have said they plan to run for the GOP nomination Sam Kephart of Spearfish and Bert Tollefson of Sioux Falls have until the close of business Tuesday to submit their nominating petitions or send them via registered mail by that time.

Secretary of State Chris Nelson said Monday that he hopes to have a final candidate list by Thursday morning.

The winner faces Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson, whom Gonyo called a 'nice Norwegian American, the same as me.'



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