Abel Pacheco Jr.

For the first time, seven city council seats were decided by geographic representation in the 2015 election. Pacheco ran in District 4 against incumbent Jean Godden.^[6][7] Pacheco came in fifth place in the August primary, receiving only 8.43% of the vote.^[8]

In 2017, Pacheco ran for the appointment to fill the seat of Tim Burgess, who had become acting mayor.^[9] The council appointed Kirsten Harris-Talley to fill the seat.^[7]

In 2019, Pacheco ran for city council in District 4 after incumbent Rob Johnson (Seattle politician) stated he would not run for reelection.^[10] During the election, Pacheco accused rival and future District 4 councilmember Alex Pedersen of sending emails saying, "Abel is a criminal."^[1] Pederson denied the accusation.^[1]

In March 2019, Johnson announced that he would resign from the city council in April to work as a transportation adviser for Seattle's new NHL team.^[11] Pacheco was appointed to fill the position in a "caretaker" role, and stated that he would drop out of the District 4 race.^[10]

Pacheco was chair of the Planning, Land Use & Zoning Committee during his time in office focusing on urbanist issues.^[12] As chair, he introduced legislation that would reduce the amount of time for environmental review for projects related to housing and climate change.^[13] The legislation received some push-back from over concerns of environmental protection and reduction in civic engagement, but passed 8-0.^[14][15]

After leaving the city council, Pacheco then worked for Sound Transit.^[16] In June 2023, he joined the Washington State Army National Guard as a part-time intelligence analyst.^[3]