Brown regains seat he first held in the 1970s, despite former eBay CEO Whitman throwing $160m on the race

Governor Moonbeam is back. In one of the most remarkable stories of political resurrection in recent American history, Jerry Brown has won back the governorship of California, regaining a post he first won in the 1970s.

Brown, who earned his nickname during his first turn as governor after advocating hi-tech ideas that are now commonplace, defeated the high-spending Republican candidate Meg Whitman.

Shortly after polls closed in California, first Fox and then the Los Angeles Times called the race for Brown. They also predicted that another big name Republican hopeful, Carly Fiorina, would lose in her bid to oust Californian senator Barbara Boxer.

But it was the governor's race that had captured most attention. Inside the Fox Theatre in downtown Oakland, where the 72-year-old Brown was holding an election night party, supporters cheered and shouted as the news broke over TV screens erected on the stage.

Brown eventually took the stage to thunderous applause and jokingly acknowledged that he was returning to a job he had held before. "I did this 36 years ago," he said.

Indeed when Brown first won the governorship in 1975 he was the youngest person ever elected to the office. Now, in his second time around, he is the oldest politician ever to win the keys to the governor's mansion.

In a short and apparently off-the-cuff acceptance speech Brown vowed to try and forge a consensus in Californian politics despite an unusually bitter and negative campaign against Whitman.

"I take it as my challenge, forging a common purpose, based not just on compromise but on a vision of what California could be," he said.

He promised to focus on improving education and creating green jobs. "I want to build for the future. That is what it is all about," he said.

It was a devastating political blow for Whitman, the former chief executive of eBay, who spent an astonishing $160m (£100m) on her campaign, making it the most expensive governor's race in Californian history. Adding financial injury to political insult, Whitman spent an amazing $140m of her own money.

However, Brown's victory is bound to be tempered by the sobering realities of governing California. Though the race was fiercely contested, many seasoned political observers see the governorship as a poisoned chalice. The state's finances are crippled and its government has implemented a brutal series of spending cuts that are slashing services, like higher education and state wages. Yet the problems are so deep, and local politics so fractured, that trying to solve California's budgetary woes is seen as virtually impossible.

Just ask Arnold Schwarzenegger. Though "the Governator" was seen as someone who could stand outside party politics and get things done, he leaves office with anaemic approval ratings and shunned by establishment Democrats and Republicans alike. Indeed, Schwarzenegger refused to reveal if he had voted for Brown or Whitman while casting his ballot.