Writing in Mother Jones, Siddhartha Mahanta discusses the results of a FOIA inquiry seeking records from Huckabee's 12 years as Governor of Arkansas. The result was rather less than might be hoped. Quoting the article
In February, Mother Jones wrote to the office of Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe seeking access to a variety of records concerning his predecessor's tenure, including Huckabee's travel records, calendars, call logs, and emails. Beebe's chief legal counsel, Tim Gauger, replied in a letter that "former Governor Huckabee did not leave behind any hard-copies of the types of documents you seek. Moreover, at that time, all of the computers used by former Governor Huckabee and his staff had already been removed from the office and, as we understand it, the hard-drives in those computers had already been 'cleaned' and physically destroyed."
He added, "In short, our office does not possess, does not have access to, and is not the custodian of any of the records you seek."
Apparently this did come up during his last presidential run, but nothing much happened with it. In 2007 a Jim Parsons made a request for the information, and was informed that all the disk drives had been crushed. At least someone on his staff was better informed about data security, and knew that deleted files can be recovered if the platters remain intact.
A point that I found interesting, the original cost of the computer equipment destroyed was pegged at $350,000.00, (presumably the disk drives represented only part of that amount).
The thing I wonder most, was how they managed to get the equipment past the clutches of the surplus equipment disposal officer, they are usually some of the the most entrenched bureaucrats in any organization.
Supposedly a backup exists, but it was not deposited with the archivist at the end of his term, instead his chief of staff took custody of it when all and sundry departed the office.
Yes, Arkansas has public records statutes (pdf), and while there are some limits on what can be disclosed, wholesale destruction seems to fall under the usual IOKIYAR applied to the breach of such statues.
Secrecy seems to be the norm for the Reverend, as his handlers have taken steps to block access to videotapes of sermons delivered as part of his Southern Baptist ministry.