Bob Franks, 58, who served four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1990s as a Republican from northern New Jersey, died April 9 of cancer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He was a powerful figure in New Jersey's resurgent Republican Party, and twice served as the state's GOP chairman and as a congressional campaign manager. He spent 14 years in the state legislature, as a protege of Gov. Thomas Kean, before being elected to Congress from New Jersey's 7th Congressional District in 1992. Franks was fiscally conservative and socially liberal, favoring abortion rights. He was a member of the House Transportation Committee and supported overhauling campaign finance rules. In 2000, Franks narrowly lost a race for the U.S. Senate against Jon S. Corzine, who heavily outspent his Republican opponent. Franks lost a bid for the Republican nomination for governor in 2001. He then became director of the HealthCare Institute of New Jersey, a lobbying group for pharmaceutical and medical technology companies. Robert Douglas Franks was born in Hackensack, N.J., and graduated from DePauw University in Indiana. He received a law degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas in 1976, then returned to New Jersey to work as a political consultant. He and Corzine eventually became good friends, and Franks became a frequent consultant to the Democratic senator, who later became New Jersey's governor. Survivors include his wife, Fran Franks, and three daughters. 