In the fall of 1970, Karl Rove, a future White House Deputy Chief of Staff in the George W. Bush administration, used a false identity to enter the office of Dixon's campaign for Illinois Treasurer and stole 1.000 sheets of paper with campaign letterhead.

Outgoing Governor Dan Walker had lost the support of the party and was defeated in the primary election.

Dixon's choice was Donald R. Smith, a Republican who was the ranking Civil Service employee in the State Treasurer's office and who had agreed not to run for re-election.

[3] Dixon was generally considered a moderate and was less visible nationally than either of his Illinois colleagues, Charles Percy and Paul Simon, both of whom sought the presidency.

He also spent a large amount of money running advertisements attacking Dixon, weakening his support.

The Chicago Tribune ran a piece in which Eric Zorn claimed that Dixon's voting to confirm Clarence Thomas in 1991 set off a chain of events that led to Barack Obama's election as president in 2008.