Courtesy photo Stephanie Bailey of Texico is serving as a legislative assistant for Rep. Dennis Roch, R-Texico.
Stephanie Bailey has gone from Grady to Texico to Portales to Bethany, Okla., and now to Santa Fe.
Bailey, a legislative assistant for Rep. Dennis Roch, R-Texico, and her family have a long history in the area. Her great-great-grandparents, Albert and Emma Chandler, homesteaded near the New Mexico-Texas border in 1909. Bailey attended Grady High School, graduated from Texico High in 2006, attended Eastern New Mexico University for two years and is a graduate of Southern Nazarene University.
Growing up in Curry County: I grew up on a farm, so most summers I worked. When I wasn’t working, I was going to volleyball camps, basketball camps, church camp.
College: I lucked out and got a really good roommate for the first year and a half, Heidi Geyer. I played basketball. I loved the little community and being involved with basketball. I was also involved with the collegiate FFA group. I was a candidate for FFA’s homecoming queen. One day I dressed up as a clown and I had a bunch of balloons and a bag of Jolly Ranchers (to) hand out.
I decided to transfer (to SNU) because of the horse program they had. It was only about 10 years old when I got there. They had a really nice facility and they were upgrading all the time. We did hands-on work. We did a lot of breeding. We did a lot of cutting horse.
My great-grandparents went there and a lot of relatives also went there. My aunt and uncle lived in Bethany, Okla., two blocks from the college. I knew the president as well.
Way to Santa Fe: Rep. Roch was talking with my parents, asking what I was doing back home. I had my own little Mary Kay business. In the winter, we’re slow. He asked them if they thought I would be interested in a job like that. I would be back in mid-March, which is when we move all of our cattle. It’s going to work out perfectly.
What it’s like: I pick up the mail, I sort it. Sometimes I don’t even see the representative until late in the day. I’m always answering constituent phone calls and meeting with reps and pages. I also greet people.
I was there a week before it all started. They tried to prepare us. They could talk until they’re blue in the face and still couldn’t tell you how it would go. You don’t know what you’re getting into in the middle of it. You think you have all of this time to get organized, then it happens and chaos goes rampant with phone calls or constituents visits.
I’m in the Capital North. We tracked it to be about an eighth-of-a-mile from where my representative is.
— Compiled by CNJ staff writer Kevin Wilson
