Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has called on the Senate Leadership Fund, a Republican-aligned super PAC, to remove a radio advertisement attacking Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson over his longtime relationship with his second cousin, Lana Pelletier.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday during a campaign stop in Lewiston, Collins said she had no involvement in the advertisement and had urged the group to take it down. She added that campaign finance law prevents her from directly contacting the super PAC.

The country-themed jingle repeatedly attacks Jackson, a former Maine Senate president, over his relationship with Pelletier, with whom he has two adult sons. One verse calls Jackson a “freak” and accuses him of being lenient toward sex offenders, while another portrays him as a “creep” and a bully who yells at women.

Pelletier responded to the advertisement in an opinion piece published Wednesday by the Bangor Daily News, accusing Collins and her political supporters of directing personal attacks at her family.

“Collins has been quick to demand respect and decency for herself. My family deserves the same,” Pelletier wrote.

A licensed clinical social worker, Pelletier said she and Jackson, 58, have been together for nearly 40 years and recently welcomed a granddaughter. She rejected being portrayed as a political talking point, writing that she was neither helpless nor a caricature of her background.

Collins had previously acknowledged Jackson’s family relationship in a September interview with Politico, saying she would not raise the fact that the mother of his children was his second cousin, while questioning whether voters knew about it.

The advertisement’s claims about sex offenders also draw on Jackson’s legislative record. In 2005, while serving in the Maine House of Representatives, Jackson voted against establishing mandatory minimum prison sentences for certain sex offenses and opposed some restrictions on where registered sex offenders could live.

However, the Bangor Daily News reported earlier this month that Republican attacks on those votes had omitted Jackson’s support for tougher penalties for certain child sex offenses in 2006 and mischaracterized another vote concerning residency restrictions.

Dan Gottlieb, Jackson’s deputy campaign manager, said Collins should apologize to Jackson’s family, accusing the senator of previously helping spread the personal attacks she now claims to oppose.

Collins has also complained about the tone of the campaign, describing the number of personal attacks as unusual in Maine’s political history. She said Republican senators facing competitive reelection contests nationwide have been targeted by advertisements attempting to link them to Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sex offender.

The race against Jackson remains competitive as the incumbent senator seeks her sixth term in office.