In 1982, while Goldsmith was head of NOW, the organization succeeded in increasing the number of women serving in state legislatures. Goldsmith advocated a more partisan direction for the formerly more inclusive NOW and adopted liberal positions on issues such as Reaganomics. During the same year, NOW controversially endorsed Frank Lautenberg, the male Democratic Senate opponent of New Jersey's Republican feminist Congresswoman, Millicent Fenwick, due to Fenwick's support of Reagan's economic agenda despite her pro-women's rights stances. Lautenberg defeated Fenwick by a narrow margin. Goldsmith believed that much discrimination had roots in economics and survival issues. During her tenure she also worked with Coretta Scott-King on the 1983 march commemorating the 20th anniversary of the historic "March on Washington" by Martin Luther King, Jr.