IT HAPPENS in every election these days, getting to a point where we've heard so much negativity that we just want it to end.

But in recent years, the campaigns have become so negative, and politics itself so negatively contentious, that I'm about ready to advocate an entirely new party.

Call it the "Positive Party," and it would have just one requirement: Candidates will offer only solutions to fix and deal with the problems of the day instead of repeating today's standard approach of saying what's wrong with the idiot he's running against.

Our governor's race is what has pushed me over the brink.

Instead of hearing what these two candidates with very different political views would do to solve the dire problems facing our commonwealth, they've spent millions running each other down.

"He wrote an unbelievable college thesis," thunders one.

"He's not the kind of guy who's really from around here," screams the other.

While on the sidelines, supporters make fun of the way one candidate stutters or questions whether the other believes women should be allowed in the work force.

It's all enough to leave those of us trying to pick a candidate with the best and most innovative solutions to today's problems wondering where the serious issues went.

To be fair, the candidates who run in our state and national elections usually do put out a number of papers or briefings in which they set out their agendas.

Some even write books outlining all of this.

But a strange thing happens on the way to Election Day--it all goes nasty.

Because, as the consultants and talking heads on radio and television realize, nasty works in a world dominated by short sound bites.

That's where the new party I'd like to see would come in.

To become a candidate for this party, you'd have to take just one pledge--to run a positive campaign where you simply lay out your solutions, letting the other guy do the same--then letting the voters pick.

TV would hate this approach because in today's world, ratings--and therefore, income--are fueled by conflict and controversy, heat and hate.