MANCHESTER (AP) – Motorists facing nearly $4 per gallon prices as they pulled up to the pumps got a surprise during Wednesday afternoon’s rush hour: They didn’t have to pay federal or state taxes, cutting their bills by 46 cents a gallon.

The rebates were the idea of Dean Scontras, a Republican candidate for southern Maine’s 1st Congressional District seat, who greeted motorists at the J&S Oil Express Stop pumps with a quick pitch on his energy views and some campaign literature.

“This is great,” a smiling Clarence Martin of Augusta said as the $65 fill-up for his Ford van was cut by $7.38. “I can remember when it went to 50 cents a gallon. My father-in-law said the world would end.”

Energy prices are a major topic this election year in national and state races. Republican presidential candidate John McCain has called for a summer-long gas tax holiday, as has Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton.

In Maine congressional races, candidates’ TV ads have hit on the issue hard, with candidates touting their alternative-energy proposals and highlighting energy legislation in which they’ve had a hand. But in the six-way race for the Democratic nomination in next week’s 1st District House primary, only one candidate – Mark Lawrence – has embraced a fuel tax holiday.

In the GOP 1st District race, Scontras’s rival Charles Summers’ Web site calls for more action to encourage the discovery of new energy sources and technologies to help the nation reduce its reliance on uncertain energy sources.

Summers did not respond immediately to calls and an e-mail message Wednesday to elaborate on his view of a gas tax holiday.

Scontras said his campaign paid the taxes that motorists at Manchester were able to skip from 4:40 to 6 p.m.

“Mainers are feeling it at the pump right now, and we’re talking about a federal tax holiday,” he said before heading to the pumps.

“Both the federal government and the state government take 45 cents, we’re talking about windfall profits (by) gas companies, and I’d like to see this tax removed. … So this is a good way of showing Mainers that I’m trying to support them already. First I want to drill for more oil, but I think we should suspend the gas tax for the time being to make it easier for Mainers to get by,” he said.

The federal gasoline tax is 18.4 cents a gallon, and the state charges 27.6 cents. The state tax is scheduled to rise to 28.4 cents on July 1.

AP-ES-06-04-08 1853EDT