"I want to thank all of the people who voted for me and had faith in me all those years. I'm still here. I want them to know that. That I plan to be active in my community and I'm not sitting at home. I have a lot of energy and a lot of life to live, and I hope I can help many people still in this county. Have a little fun and help other people."”

Aileen Gunther

Sullivan County’s New York State Assembly representative for the 100th district, Aileen Gunther, invited the River Reporter into her home to discuss her twenty-plus years in office, her personal life and her next steps. She has spent 20 years in office and has been elected eleven times and did not run for re-election in the 2024 election. 

ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 100, NY – Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther lives in Forestburgh in a house built by her late husband and former assembly member Jacob Gunther. The 36-year-old house sits just near Sackett Lake on Gunther family land.

The house is“rustic,” Gunther says. She points to a ship model that hangs on a wall. “Fun isn’t it? I love that. I bought that thing from an antique store.” 

Gunther points out the curved windows that look out from the kitchen over the land also installed by Jacob. Jacob Gunther died after a brief bout of cancer in 2003 at only 50 years; he was survived by Aileen and their three children, Mary Alice, Jacob IV and Caitlin. Jacob's unexpected death left his New York State Assembly seat vacant, which Aileen then ran for and won that same year.

Gunther speaks passionately about her job as assemblywoman articulating a deep appreciation and gratitude for the office. 

“I love hearing stories from other people about the way they live, what happened in their past–they served in war, you know, all kinds of things, and that's what this job did," she says.  "You could have these conversations, and it makes you so aware of number one. I think [about] how lucky I am, but [also] how so many people need so much help, and it's true in our community. It is true. You know, we have a gentleman that comes in a couple of times a week….” 

Her phone rings cutting her off. She answers, and after some muffled talking from the other side of the line she tells the caller that her daughter and granddaughter are arriving but that maybe she will stop by with them to visit, “Can I call you back? I have company.” She hangs up.

Gunther answers a call from a constituent.

The caller, one of her constituents, is "an artist and has terrible Parkinson's," she says. “He comes in, I give him a cup of coffee and all that kind of stuff. But then we went to his art show, and he asked us to go. So a couple of us went–Cody and Drew, and everybody. We all went to his art show, and he wanted me to come over to his house to see his paintings."

Gunther says the open-door atmosphere of her office is one of the things she is most proud of. “Wherever we go, we listen to people, and they are invited into the office. If they needed something, we made sure they got what they needed.”

Gunther says, “Someone walking into [the office] that is looking for an apartment or didn't have furniture or didn't have money to fix a car, or didn't have a down payment for their apartment,” is helped. 

Just recently, Gunther said, “I gave somebody $500 because they needed $500 to have a deposit on their apartment. And the person is very, very nice, and I said, you know, you can pay it back in small, small steps. And that's what this person is doing. But I did, you know, I did, and my office was like that. I made sure.”

“There are lots of things that we can do in our community, we all can do to help folks. You know when you see that person sitting on the street, maybe they need a bottle of water, and maybe they need some kind words? You know, those kinds of things, I think that's important. And that’s part of the community.”

The open-door policy is not just reserved for her assembly office. Gunther embodies the same Laizefair, come-one-come-all attitude in her own home. 

Before going outside to be photographed for the article she procured an extra fleece from her own closet and insisted that this reporter borrow and wear it for the shoot.

The assemblywoman says, “I’m a little preppy, I guess,” about her personal style. 

Whether attending nighttime town board meetings, visiting the county legislature or standing in her kitchen, Assemblywomen Gunther always appears put together. Her hair sits smoothly and her bangs swoop neatly to one side of her face. Her crisp collared shirt is tucked into dark wash high-wasted flare jeans with golden sailor-style buttons. 

“I’m always cleaning and fixing. I like to make it comfy and cozy for the children when they come,” she says about the house. 

In addition to her three children, Gunther has six grandchildren. The house has four bedrooms and is sprinkled with reminders of her grandkids, like the festive unicorn garland that hangs in the formal dining room — one of her grandchildren insists she keeps it up, she says.   

The Assemblywoman says she’s made a few changes to her now adult children’s rooms. The house is “party central”, and “the kids are always bringing people,” she says.

“We’re eclectic,” she says, speaking about her children’s spouses and where they have settled respectively. Her daughter Mary Alice lives in Dallas, Texas, and met her husband while he was volunteering for one of Aileen’s campaigns. 

“They just started talking,” Gunther recalls. “He was a big Democrat from Austin, Texas and he was in New York. He was going to law school, so he decided to work on my campaign, and they became an item, I guess you would say.” 

Gunther’s own upbringing was Irish Catholic. After attending Orange County Community College for her degree in nursing, she moved with her to-be husband Jake Gunther to Santa Barbara where he was studying psychology.

“I grew up Irish Catholic. I was like outta there. I was like I gotta get out.” 

There, while in her early twenties, she worked as a nurse's aide for Freedom Community Clinic. Working in the clinic “was an eye opener for me, coming from this Catholic household, and, you know, all those kinds of things." 

“You can imagine that Santa Barbara, in those days, was like hippieville, you know, Birkenstocks and all.” 

Serving at the height of the HIV epidemic, Gunther saw many HIV positive patients. Gunther reflects that it taught her to understand "that people had different issues. It was a time when people didn't respect homosexual marriage and things like that."  

Although at Freedom Community Clinic everyone was "welcomed in,” Gunther says, “we saw so many people, and even in Sullivan County, passing away because we didn't have the treatment that was necessary.”  

When Gunther reflects on that time, she says “it's about people that loved one another and they wanted to have a happy life and the same life as anybody else, and that was just such a bad time.”

 At Freedom Community and as an assembly member, Gunther has championed the passing of nursing and health care legislation, some of which introduced first-of-its-kind standards in the state. 

The “Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act,” sponsored by Gunther, was deemed historic for nurses in an article in Politico. The bill passed into law in 2021, setting requirements for the number of nurses per patient in each unit. A similar bill had been introduced previously without success. 

Steadfast from a young age, Gunther has always wanted to be a nurse. “My grandmother was a bilateral amputee, and she was in a hospital and a long-term care facility, and I would go there after Mass on Sunday, and that was the beginning of me thinking I wanted to become a nurse,” she said.

Gunther described the visits to her grandmother. “I'd jump up on the bed, my mother would say, Aileen, Aileen, Aileen,” imitating her mother’s gestures for her to stop. “All the nurses would say, she's not afraid of anybody. There was a woman in the same bedroom as my grandmother. Her name was Josie, and I used to go and jump on the bed with Josie, and she couldn't speak, but I could speak to her, and they would say, Oh, she's not a bit afraid she wants to go up and see what's going on. And I guess maybe you could call me nosy.”

“I think that being a nurse brought a lot of good character into my life and into my work,” Gunther says. She adds that working as a nurse taught her that “empathy is important and making sure people have a place to live and food to eat [is important]."

Gunther did not confine her legislative work to health care.  Bringing back constituents' tax dollars is a core point of pride from the assemblywoman's long career in office:

“I’m so proud of bringing back our taxes, and a lot of them. Millions and millions of dollars I brought back. I'm a fighter, a Bronx girl, so I have fire and brought a lot of the money back here. It's their own money, I’m just bringing it back to your community. And I think it was really helpful.”

Unlike larger counties like Westchester, which has five state assembly members, Sullivan has only one advocate in the assembly in Albany for the majority of the district with the exception of Freemont and Neversink.  

“I was one person, but, you know, I made my voice heard, and then I listened to my constituency, and did whatever I could,” Gunther says.

How did she make her voice heard to bring back tax dollars to the community? “I'm not afraid to speak my truth. And if I had to wait at a door with the leader, I'd wait. I'd go to the second floor of the governor's office. I didn't care. Sometimes people say you have to make an appointment. Well, if something is on my mind, I'm going up and that's how I was able to bring money, so much money, and pass so much legislation,” she says 

Gunther’s advice to any future representatives for the 100th Assembly district is simple, direct, and clear. She says, “Be kind and care, and meet people where they are.”

Democrat Paula Elaine Kay will succeed Gunther and be sworn in on January 1. Kay ran against Republican candidate Lou Ingrassia and won with a narrow lead in Sullivan County.  Kay worked briefly with Jacob Gunther when he held office as assembly member as director of special projects. 

Gunther says she was not a part of picking her successor, and she did not advise Kay or the Sullivan County Democratic Committee on succession planning. “She didn’t ask,” Gunther says. “I think her husband was very helpful and she wanted to do it [run for office] so she did." Gunther gave Kay her official support and was present for encouragement at various points throughout her campaign. 

Gunther says her choice to retire was complicated. “My children have always been my biggest priority,” she said. “I was going through something with my child.” Her daughter who lives in Paris, France was going through a divorce.

“You know I had never been through a divorce or anything like that and I was very anxious, and my daughter was very upset, and we’re thousands of miles away, and I’m thinking she’s all alone, and it was just a very miserable time in my life.” 

Gunther says she kept her family struggles private, but "a few people had said something about how I had changed, or something like that. And I felt very hurt by that. You know, I was going through a difficult time in my life with my child, whom I love dearly. I love all my children. And it just kind of smacked me in the face. And then, from there, I said, 'Well, you know, maybe I should move on,' and that's exactly what happened.”

 Referring to her daughter, Gunther adds, “She's better now, and she's coming tomorrow, so I'm happy about that. But you know, I'm getting older. I want to be part of my children's lives, and for her not to be able to come [to the US] was just disastrous.

Gunther was the sole parent supporting her daughter in this difficult time. “I didn’t have that father, like, if my husband, Jacob was there, it would be like both of us trying to, you know, make sure our child was okay and our grandchild is okay.”

Gunther met Jacob, a swimmer at St. Lawrence University, when she was 19 at the Orange County Community College swimming pool. “I was at the pool. I had my one-piece bathing suit on and this fella came in.” But it wasn’t until they met again through Gunther’s roommate that “Jacob asked me if I wanted to go for a ride.” “What the heck,” Gunther decided.  “I didn’t have a car and any money and at least I could go someplace different." 

Jacob picked Gunther up in his mom's yellow Conveyor and brought her to his family's property in Forestborough where they would eventually build their house where Aileen lives today. “It was my first introduction to the area,“ Gunther says, and then adds,“My god he was so handsome. He really was, and smart and funny.”

Gunther wraps up her love story by saying that after their first date Jacob went on a trip to Germany. When he returned, “he called me again, and that was the beginning of the end.”

Gunther says she “knew what she was getting into" when she decided to run for Jacob’s assembly seat after he passed. Looking back, she says, “Nothing surprised me except that I won.” 

“I knew legislation. I knew what he did, and I knew how it was done. You know, I heard him talking all the time. It went into my brain. I knew about campaigns because I worked on his campaigns.”

Gunther, who was working as a nurse, says she needed a break from the hospitals and sicknesses after Jacob died from cancer.

That decision to run was a leap of faith. "You got to take chances in life to move forward. You know, sometimes, and especially women, we think that we should stand and wait. Don't wait,” she said.

Gunther laughs explaing the typo on the plaque honoring her late husband. The plaque reads "I love my Wife, I love my Kids, I love my horse, I love …

What’s next for Gunther? She says, “You know I sit at home and I think about, how do I recreate myself? You know? I live alone and I want to be active, and I still have my nursing license, so I think about, you know, what I could do that I've always helped people in my nursing career. I worked a lot with people with HIV, and I did infection control, and I still want to continue to work, maybe not as much, but work with people. You know, I'm not one to sit behind a desk.”

Gunther says her son suggested the family take a longer vacation this year to their traditional spot on Long Beach Island. But, she says definitively “no” longer vacations are not part of her retirement plan.

“We have a lot of low-income people. We have mental health issues in our county. All of this needs to be taken care of, and I'll continue. I am a nurse, and I'll continue to advocate,” she says about Sullivan County.

"I want to thank all of the people who voted for me and had faith in me all those years. I'm still here. I want them to know that. That I plan to be active in my community and I'm not sitting at home. I have a lot of energy and a lot of life to live, and I hope I can help many people still in this county. Have a little fun and help other people," Gunther says. 

Gunther stands by a photo of Kennedy that hangs in her dining room. She says it's one of her favorites and was gifted by a former colleague when he …

Editor's note:  Additional information about  Gunther's official endorsement of Paula Kay's campaign has been added to this article as of  December 6, 2024, at 11:05 AM.