QUESTION. How many voters

are undecided?

 ANSWER. 23 percent of the electorate, or roughly one of four Philadelphians who are planning to vote next Tuesday.

 Q. Who are they?

 A. They tend to be women, with some 64 percent of the undecided vote - nearly two-thirds - female. However, pollsters say that's not surprising, because they expect that more than 60 percent of those who ultimately vote will be women.

It is statistically significant, however, that 47 percent are black. For one thing, that number is a higher percentage than of African-Americans who are expected to vote, and experts say that blacks tend in most urban elections to unify behind a black Democratic candidate.

They also are overwhelmingly Democratic. In the city, Republicans are outnumbered by about 3.8 to 1, but the undecided are even more heavily Democratic, 74 percent to 14 percent. That means Katz is holding his Republican base, while there is danger of Street's Democratic support eroding further.

In fact, 35 percent of the undecided say they usually vote straight Democratic.

Other sub-groups that tend to be slightly more represented among the undecided (23 percent overall) are families earning $40,000-$50,000 (29 percent), union members (27 percent), and people who finished high school (25 percent).

 Q. What does Street need to

do about this?

 A. In recent days, there has been a noticeable change in strategy coming from the Democratic campaign, with less of an emphasis on wooing affluent white and black liberal and more of an emphasis on working-class Democrats.

The Street campaign clearly feels it will win if it can convince some of the cornerstones of the Democratic coalition to come back into the fold. Friday's appearance here by President Clinton, an extremely popular figure in Philadelphia's black community, is meant to energize Democrats for Street and to get them to vote.

 Q. What does Katz need to do about this?

 A. Katz's aides say that the Republican's strategy all along has been not to target any particular group, and that nothing will change in the campaign's final days.

However, clearly the GOP candidate's focus remains on convincing the city's Democratic majority - comprising more than half of the remaining undecideds - that it's OK to switch parties. His main TV ad shows Democrats - including defeated primary candidate John White Jr. - saying they back Katz.

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