He tweeted from north Minneapolis tornado activities. He tweeted from Art-A-Whirl in northeast Minneapolis and from sites less than a mile away. But Minneapolis mayor and DFL endorsee R.T. Rybak was missing Saturday when the city DFL met to choose the candidates it would back for this fall's school board election. At least one of those Rybak endorsed could have used a boost. Rybak was the most prominent elected official to endorse Tracine Asberry for the highly competitive endorsement contest for the new Southwest seat on the board. She led the field all day but fell 22 votes short of the 60 percent needed for endorsement. But then Rybak's political coattails have been a little threadbare in the last year, even as he's dabbled in presidential politicking in Iowa and New Hampshire. On Sunday, the candidate he backed for county commissioner to replace Mark Stenglein, political ally Don Samuels, fell well short of Linda Higgins for the DFL endorsement in that race. Rybak was a no-show there as well, participating in a southern Minnesota bike tour against the marriage amendment, according to his tweets. Last fall, Rybak aide Peter Wagenius finished a distant third in the Senate District 59 primary. Rybak was the only local official explicitly permitted to speak at the convention at the chair's discretion, under convention rules. And he's open to the idea of the mayor appointing some members of the school board. Rybak's office has yet to respond to a query on why the mayor was a no-show at last weekend's endorsing conventions. He himself is 1 for 3 in seeking DFL endorsement from the city party. He blocked Sharon Sayles Belton's endorsement in 2001, the year he went on to win the job, and fought to a standoff with Peter McLaughlin for the party nod in 2005 when he sought reelection. Finally he got the party nod against token opposition in 2009.