Campaigning in Pottsville on Friday was also a trip home for David J. Freed, the Republican candidate for state attorney general.
"I went to kindergarten and first grade at what was the Yorkville School," Freed, 41, of Camp Hill, said during an interview at Maroons Bar & Grill. "It's always nice to be back. We still have a lot of relatives here."
Freed, who serves as district attorney of Cumberland County, is seeking the state's highest law enforcement position in a race against Democrat Kathleen Kane, a Lackawanna County assistant district attorney. Current Attorney General Linda L. Kelly, a Republican who was appointed to succeed Tom Corbett after he was elected governor, is not running for the position.
If elected, Freed will continue the line of Republican attorneys general that dates back to 1980, when the position became an elected one. That year, voters picked LeRoy S. Zimmerman - Freed's father-in-law - to be attorney general.
"He's a huge help," Freed said of Zimmerman.
Freed's own father, William Freed, grew up at 605 E. Market St. and eventually served as principal of Pottsville Area High School before becoming superintendent of the Camp Hill School District.
The vice president of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association, Freed sees the attorney general's office as a chance to make an even greater impact on the law.
"I see the Attorney General's Office as an opportunity to help even more people," he said. "I look forward to the leadership role."
That leadership is a crucial difference between him and his opponent, since he has been both a district attorney and an assistant district attorney, Freed said.
"I have experience as a district attorney in growth in caseload without growing staff," Freed said. "While we have a similar sets of experiences as ADAs, I have a leadership role."
One thing Freed will not do is question the office's investigation and prosecution of Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant football coach who was convicted in June of 45 counts relating to his sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years.
"I think the verdict speaks for itself. The focus has to be on convicting the offender," he said. "The office built a solid case and obtained conviction that will keep him in jail for the rest of his life."
Some critics, including Kane, have demanded to know why Sandusky was not charged sooner. To Freed, such criticism is not warranted and ignores the fact that proceeding too soon could have imperiled the entire case against Sandusky, who is in prison awaiting sentencing.
"Only the prosecutor handling the case knows whether the evidence is sufficient," he said. "Prosecutors only get one chance. You'd better make sure you've amassed all the evidence you could possibly amass."
Freed declined to comment on whether further cases might arise from the scandal, which has led to the NCAA placing the Penn State football program on probation for four years and fining the university $60 million, on ethical grounds, since the Attorney General's Office could be prosecuting them.
He said he wants to create a task force to combat synthetic drugs and bath salts, which have been linked to numerous examples of bizarre and dangerous behavior. The state banned them in 2011, but Freed said makers are using new formulas to make products that evade the law.
"They're getting put back on the shelves," said Freed, who recently led a drive in Cumberland County that took 20,000 packages of such substances off the shelves. "They're very much a danger. They're very easy for kids to get their hands on."
Another issue he wants to tackle is cyber crime, proposing to create a new unit that would take a statewide leadership role in prosecuting such crimes and training district attorneys offices to prosecute them.
"We don't always keep up with changes in technology," he said.
Another area of law Freed wants to emphasize is fighting crimes against children and senior citizens.
"I want to create a special victims unit ... to focus on the most vulnerable victims," he said.
Freed said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press that he would be an advocate for expanding the use of video recording for law enforcement.
Freed said videos can provide crucial evidence to convict suspects of crimes, for example, or reaffirm a police officer's statement claiming to have pulled over a motorist for drunken driving because the vehicle was weaving.
"I like (criminal) processing being videoed. I like in-car videos. I like the video and audio on the police officer because there is no question then about what happened," he said. "You can play those in court, and it's the best evidence you can have."
Freed also said he supports a bill to overhaul the state's wiretapping law for the first time in 14 years, calling it a reasonable proposal that would help law enforcement. A version passed by the House, among other things, would allow people to record conversations without other parties' consent if they believe it might provide evidence of a serious crime.
Freed said the current law, which requires mutual consent, bars incriminating recordings from being admitted as evidence even though modern technology makes recording easier than ever.
The proposal would "catch us up with current technology," he said. "The possibility is certainly out there that people can record themselves being victimized on their ... smartphones and that could be valid evidence that we're artificially unable to use."
Freed said he has prosecuted many types of criminals, including murderers, arsonists and child predators, and that experience would serve the people of Pennsylvania well.
"I think the race comes down to experience and qualifications," he said.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)