Political blogger the ‘Lionstar’ to stop Dec. 31

Jaime Abeytia, who has been writing The LionStar Blog since 2007, has decided to end the political blog on Dec. 31 to pursue other interests.

He declined to give specifics.

“But its an opportunity to serve the community,” Abeytia said.

“I started writing the blog because I’m a wonk and would go to forums and only see a small blurb about the forum on TV coverage. I didn’t understand news business back then. So I started by doing summaries of the forums and then adding commentary and analysis,” Abeytia said.

Abeytia, a diehard Democrat, said he has learned from the experience.

“The biggest lesson I have learned is how the internet can magnify your thoughts and opinions. I never imagined that a blog I did mostly as a hobby would eventually become my identity to a great extent and lead to other things like talk radio and being a regular go-to source for local, state, and even national media on issues relating to El Paso politics. Blows my mind,” Abeytia said.

He does have advice for other bloggers who are looking to get involved in political blogging.

“First, never take yourself too seriously,” he said. “Too many other people will and you need to stay relatively sane.”

Abeytia certainly doesn’t take himself too seriously as he has joked on his Facebook page about his blog losing to a blog about kittens one year and a blog about vegetables another.

“Second, don’t expect success over night,” Abeytia said. “It takes a while to develop credibility with your readers. And third, and probably most importantly, you have to be relentless. Borderline OCD. David K and I have seen a lot of other bloggers come and go. Their main problem is that they don’t realize that in order to become a place were people go online every day, you have to give them a reason to. You have to be good at what you do, whether your schtick is being funny, creative, wonky, or whatever. But you have to be totally driven to do it. And don’t expect to get paid either.”

Other local political blogs:

Refuse the Juice: Written by David K, considered a conservative blogger. “I’m just a guy that knows we are all being lied to and some of us really like it for some reason,” his profile states on his blog.

Max Powers Blog: It is not known who is writing this new blog but the name is a generic name that was used as a fake name in a Simpsons TV episode, as well as on fake political signs set up around El Paso this election season.