Remember all that criticism of Democratic mayoral candidate John Street for taking a week's vacation in late August, little more than two months before the biggest election of life?

Well, what about the vacation that GOP candidate Sam Katz seems to be taking with the balloting just five weeks away?

Katz hasn't really been on vacation, of course, and this weekend voters will get to see him on the same stage with Street in the first two major debates of the fall.

But heading into tomorrow's debate, there has been a strange lack of news or major public events coming from the Republican camp. Even his highlight of the week - an endorsement by a second of Street's Democratic primary rivals, Happy Fernandez - seemed low key, perhaps because Fernandez, in her new role as president of the Moore College of Art and Design, wanted it that way.

Bob Barnett, the campaign director, said Katz may have appeared to have had a slow week, in part because few civic groups were holding events. He said the candidate will eventually release more detailed proposals on schools and other issues, although he said Katz already discusses most of the details in his public appearances.

Street, on the other hand, has been anything but quiet. He has staged several public events, including outlining his plans to attract more teachers to the city, has run ads attacking Katz's support of school vouchers, and made some sharp verbal remarks about his foe.

On Wednesday, Street called Katz a candidate with "zero experience." At the same time, the campaign brought back the biggest gun in its arsenal, Mayor Rendell, whose endorsement was so critical in the spring, for a new television ad.

"John Street thinks it's important to ramp up the campaign at the time when voters are paying attention," said Ken Snyder, his campaign spokesman. "Sam Katz has been advertising for a long time that he has plans, but he's not telling anybody what they are."

The new tone for the Street campaign is a sharp turnaround from just a week ago, when pundits were saying Street's seemingly lackadaisical summer, highlighted by his failure to win over fellow Democrats John F. White Jr. and now Fernandez, seemed to signal a campaign that was adrift.

Larry Ceisler, the Democratic political consultant, said yesterday he sees both campaigns running on an energy level that's lower than what Philadelphia voters are used to, and that could spell a record low turnout in November.

"Each candidate is waiting for the other to take the first punch, and if and when somebody does, that's when the campaign gets rolling," Ceisler added. He said both campaigns have vivid memories of how rival Marty Weinberg's relentless attacks on Street backfired in the primary, and both are reluctant to offend voters who feel better about Philadelphia after the popular Rendell's term.

Right now, experts noted, both campaigns are working around the same basic issue: that Democrats outnumber Republicans in Philadelphia by a 4:1. and so Katz can't win without a major crossover vote.

So you have Katz running TV ads seeking to tell those swing Democrats that it's OK to pull the GOP lever because Democrat White has endorsed him, and he claims that thousands of others are going to follow.

Street, on the other hand, is eagerly trying to seize upon Katz's support for school vouchers as a "wedge" issue that will be unpopular with liberal Democrats and is making sure that TV viewers remember that he is "the Democrat" for mayor.

Many experts, and certainly officials in the Katz campaign, think Street's aggressive comments and TV ads in the last week show that Street realizes the race is very close, and not the 30-point blowout a Street poll taken early last summer showed.

"I think they're desparate," Barnett said.

No so, replied Snyder.

"There are important differences between these two candidates and Street wants to talk about those issues so that voters can see those differences."

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