Vice President Joe Biden's working class heritage -- always a big part of his persona – was on full display during his visit to Portland Wednesday to campaign for Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley.

At an afternoon rally at the Oregon Convention Center, Biden portrayed Merkley as someone like himself who knows what it was like to grow up in a family of modest means and hasn't forgotten that amid the self-importance of Washington, D.C.

"The thing I like about your guy is he is a real guy," said Biden, praising Merkley for living in the same outer Southeast Portland neighborhood the senator grew up in and for sending his kids to public school there.

In the rally -- which followed a closed-door fundraiser -- both Merkley and Biden hammered relentlessly on the idea that they were champions for the middle class while Republicans favored the wealthy.

The rally, which the Merkley campaign said attracted nearly 1,000 supporters, was aimed at encouraging greater Democratic turnout in the upcoming Nov. 4 election, where Merkley faces a challenge from Republican Monica Wehby.

Biden skipped over Ebola, war in Iraq and Syria, and other subjects that have put the Obama administration on the defensive in recent weeks. Instead, his 25-minute talk was aimed almost exclusively at the idea that the economy -- which he described as "booming," at least in terms of job growth and the stock market -- is not working as it should for the middle class.

"There used to be a basic bargain in America" that most workers shared in the overall economic gains, said Biden. "That's how the middle class was built. That used to be the bargain. And the middle class was what sustained the economy of this country over the last 100 years. But that bargain has been broken."

Wehby has argued that Obama administration policies have kept many people from getting good jobs. Cutting taxes across the board and reducing regulations would help put more average people back to work, she has said.

Her campaign released a statement from spokesman Dean Petrone saying that Biden and Merkley "share President Obama's agenda that continues us down a path of fewer jobs, higher costs, and less opportunity. Just last week, the President reminded voters that his failed policies are on the ballot this fall, so it should come as no surprise Senator Merkley would double down on the status quo by inviting gaffe prone Joe Biden to deliver that message to Oregonians."

Biden charged that Republicans have supported policies that have helped concentrate too many of the economic gains among the well-to-do. He criticized tax rates that are lower for hedge-fund managers than for assembly-line workers and what he said were unnecessary tax breaks for oil companies.

"So folks, look, we have a fundamental disagreement with the Republican Party," said Biden, adding that, "This is not your father's Republican Party. I worked with Mark Hatfield. ... This ain't Mark Hatfield's Republican Party."

That was a reference to late Republican senator who often broke across party lines to vote with Democrats.

As it happened, Biden had used a similar line last month in a Washington, D.C., speech -- except he favorably mentioned Sen. Bob Packwood, another moderate Oregon Republican. That brought a round of media accounts saying that the famously gaffe-prone Biden had struck again by praising a senator -- before a women's group, no less -- who had been forced to resign because of sexual misconduct.

In Portland, Biden accused Wehby of voting for the Republican version of the budget in Congress, although she hasn't actually served there. She has said that she would have voted against the budget approved by the Democratic-led Senate, arguing that it would increase the deficit and raise taxes.

Merkley, for his part, accused Wehby of cribbing her proposals from Republican strategist Karl Rove, the billionaire Koch brothers and the Republican leadership in the Senate. He argued that the country should be making much bigger investments in education and infrastructure to improve the economy.

Democratic Reps. Earl Blumenauer and Suzanne Bonamici also spoke to the crowd as did Portland Mayor Charles Hales. Bonamici got one of the biggest cheers from the partisan crowd when she found this way to get in a dig at Wehby.

"Some of you may have actually heard me talk about the need for more women in Congress," Bonamici said, "but let me make something perfectly clear: It depends on the woman."

Before the rally, Biden appeared at a fundraiser with Merkley, but the senator's campaign aides did not provide any details of the closed-door event.

After leaving the Convention Center, Biden and Merkley led their motorcade up North Williams Avenue as the evening commute was in full swing. Bystanders in one of the city's hippest neighborhoods stepped out of taverns and restaurants, many with beers in hand to watch the procession. At one intersection, a half dozen cyclists, blocked from one of the city's busiest bikeways, snapped shots on their smartphones.

Their destination, on Northeast Alberta Street, was Salt & Straw, the nationally praised purveyor of gourmet ice cream.

"Jeff has been bragging about this place for the last 20 minutes," Biden said, his aviator sunglasses firmly in place, as he entered the shop with Merkley.

"What's the closest you have to chocolate?" the vice president asked. He wound up receiving a scoop of Chocolate Woodblock and a scoop of Double-Fold Vanilla.

Merkley asked for Marionberry but was told it was out of season. He ended up with a scoop of the same chocolate and a scoop of Stumptown Coffee and Bourbon.

Biden paid for the ice cream, calling himself the "last of the big-time spenders" and asked where he could leave a tip.

"You put it in the jar," said Sahi Van-Tull, one of the workers. Biden eventually came around the counter to pose for photos with the staff and scooped himself some other tastes.

"He seemed quite at home," owner Kim Malek said after the vice president left. "I don't know if he's done this before."