This was the first election for the office for a four-year term following the passage of a constitutional amendment in 1958 that provided for four-year terms for all state constitutional officers.
Attorney General Mondale was reelected to a second term, but did not serve all four years, resigning on December 30, 1964 to fill the U.S. Senate seat of DFLer Hubert Humphrey who had been elected Vice-President. Governor Karl Rolvaag appointed former Chief Deputy Attorney General and Minneapolis attorney Robert Mattson to replace Mondale as attorney general.
Kunzig was a former Pennsylvania Deputy Attorney General (1948-1953) and attorney in Minneapolis.