As recently as a few weeks ago, Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu's woes largely appeared political and personal.

A once-wildly popular, border-hawk lawman who seemingly had locked down a congressional seat was exposed as a man with a very complicated personal life and a murky track record running a school for troubled teens back East.

Some of it seemed merely tawdry. Some of it suggested possible abuses of police power. None of it appeared helpful to a politician about to face a conservative, Republican constituency in a primary election for federal office.

As recently as early last week, Paul Babeu's once-ascendant political future seemed ... well, over. But hard evidence regarding the more troubling issues -- among them, whether he abused his police powers to threaten a former boyfriend -- had not surfaced.

Now, it appears there may be a reason such evidence had not come to light. And, as a result, the sheriff's situation may be a lot more precarious than we thought.

According to Pinal County Manager Fritz Behring, the county's information-technology staff has discovered that thousands of e-mails and other electronic documents that had been hidden on a county hard drive now are deleted.

Those records had been sought by The Arizona Republic in a public-records request. And all of them had been ordered preserved by the state Attorney General's Office for a state solicitor general's investigation.

Behring has requested "immediate assistance from the attorney general" to determine where the investigations proceed from here.

Two days after the files were discovered missing, Pinal County Attorney Jim Walsh asked Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall to investigate issues involving Babeu.

The federal government is in on the act, as well: The U.S. Office of Special Investigations now is looking into whether Babeu violated the federal Hatch Act, which forbids government employees from conducting campaign business on the public's dime.

Through it all, Babeu has doughtily remained a candidate for the new District 4 seat in Congress. It now may be a fool's errand, but more power to him.

His fitness as Pinal County sheriff is a different matter.

The facts surrounding his personal scandals, especially after the release of some revealing photos he had sent to his boyfriend, raised serious questions about the elected sheriff's judgment.

Now, he faces inquiries not about his past, not about his personal life, but about his actions as sheriff. Destruction of public records is a serious matter. So are violations of the Hatch Act.

Paul Babeu walks with dark clouds into a congressional race. And things are getting worse.