U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, ranked one of the most vulnerable Republicans in the country in this year�s elections, made a stop Friday in Columbia.

It was not, however, a campaign event. Instead, his Washington, D.C., office arranged a tour at the University of Missouri College of Engineering and a roundtable discussion about a $12 million contract to train employees of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. An advisory from his office alerted reporters that Blunt wanted to visit with the media afterward.

Blunt faces Secretary of State Jason Kander, the Democratic nominee, and three minor party candidates in the Nov. 8 election. Polls have shown Blunt and Kander in a statistical tie and, on Tuesday, the political publication Roll Call rated Kander the Democrats� strongest non-incumbent candidate. Kander reported raising $3 million in the quarter ending Sept. 30, $1.2 million more than Blunt.

MU spokesman Christian Basi referred a reporter to Blunt�s office in response to a request to follow Blunt on the tour and listen to the discussion. Tyler Wilkinson with Blunt�s office said both events were closed to reporters.

The event was closed because of national security concerns, Blunt said in an interview at Lafferre Hall on the MU campus.

�I have the highest level of security clearance is the reason I can be in a discussion you can�t be in,� said Blunt, who is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Under Senate rules, members cannot make a mass mailing from their offices within 60 days of an election but the rules do not prohibit creating events to seek publicity. The cutoff date for mass mailings this year was Sept. 9. Blunt has appeared at nine events on or since Sept. 9, including two on Friday.

Before his Columbia event, Blunt stopped in Jefferson City to meet with athletes and speak to reporters at the Special Olympics State Outdoor Games. Blunt is highlighting his legislation supporting Special Olympics in one of his campaign ads.

Blunt defended his use of official resources. �The voters have decided that through early next year I am the senator and I have a job to do,� he said. �And I think in three weeks they will decide to continue me in that job.�

Kander has not issued a news release about an official event he attended since June 14. That release was issued after Kander met with his office�s Election Integrity Task Force and no invitation was extended to attend the meeting or for press to meet with Kander.

Asked about Blunt�s use of official business, Kander�s campaign said taxpayers have underwritten his effort to win re-election, including $60,000 for charter flights around Missouri.

�Jason has been to every county in the state in the past year and didn�t send the bill to taxpayers,� Kander spokeswoman Anne Feldman wrote in an email. �That�s a sharp contrast to Sen. Blunt who has made a similar claim about his campaign, but who on multiple occasions has charged taxpayers extraordinary amounts to fly him around the state in luxury in private planes instead of driving like the rest of us. Sen. Blunt should know better, but after 20 years in Washington he clearly thinks campaigning on the taxpayers� dime is appropriate.�

The MU contract to train National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency employees was announced in late August and is the largest contract ever awarded to the College of Engineering.

The contract was awarded after the agency announced it would build a $1.75 billion headquarters in St. Louis. An estimated 1,800 employees will take part in the training.

The contract will be an important tool to support the agency�s work, Blunt said.

�The fact that while the normal undergraduate and particularly the graduate program here provide some skills the NGA would want, this $12 million contract is solely focused on people NGA has already hired and largely focused on figuring out new ways to analyze all of the commercially available geospatial information,� Blunt said.

Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee would like to make more information available at low cost, Blunt said.

�I think what we are looking at here is a very significant training commitment toward that new direction,� he said.

This story was first published online on Friday, October 14, 2016 at 3:00 p.m.